New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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evelynanne
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New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by evelynanne »

Hello all, I have had my eye on this site for awhile but just registered. I am e3/e4 and my mom has Alzheimer's which started showing noticeable symptoms a bit before she turned 70 and is now fairly advanced. I am also a ghostwriter for doctors and nutritionists so I do a lot of health writing, and I read health literature obsessively. Of course this site holds personal interest for me, far beyond any professional interest. I will be attending the Ancestral Health Symposium in Boulder this August with one of my authors (Terry Wahls MD), and I see some of you will be there. I would love to join a meet-up if there will be one in Boulder. I also will be staying at the Best Western where we have a block reserved, so maybe I will see some of you there. Hoping to know how to recognize you all and looking forward to meeting some of you--and to the Bredesen and Gundry talks!!
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SusanJ
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by SusanJ »

Hi evelyanne, and I'm also a 3/4. We're happy to have you join our site and look forward to your questions and comments! How cool that you have worked with Terry Wahls. She inspires all of us fighting chronic diseases.

Glad to hear you will be at AHS, and I'm guessing that we'll formalize something for Wednesday night since most of us will be there by then. Stay tuned to the AHS thread.
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TheresaB
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by TheresaB »

Welcome evelyanne, so happy to have you. We will see you at the AHS. My husband GeorgeN (3/4) and I (4/4) will be there, but we won't be staying in Boulder as we live about 21 miles south. My husband tells me so many positive things about Dr Wahls, she influences our diet every day.
-Theresa
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Julie G
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by Julie G »

Welcome evelynanne! We're very fortunate to have your expertise. I'll be among a group of us also staying at the Best Western and will look forward to meeting up with you. Dr. Wahl's approach has also hugely influenced my diet and recovery. Her focus on mitochondria greatly overlaps with ours. I'm hoping we can meet up with her in Boulder while we are all there. We'll definitely have a formalized schedule of events posted soon. In the meantime, please feel free to share any information. I'd be especially interested in learning any specific dietary, lifestyle, or supplement strategies you practice in response to your E4 status.
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Tincup
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by Tincup »

Hi evelyanne,

Welcome and looking forward to connecting with you at AHS. My wife, TheresaB, and I are patients of Dr. Gundry. We've overlaid Dr. Walhs veggie selection protocol on Gundry's food list and try to meet her daily: 1/3 dark greens, 1/3 sulfur and 1/3 colored all the way through (with 3 different colors). We agree with Julie that the focus on mitochondrial nutrition is very important and we think that her approach is a great way to implement Bruce Ames' ideas in a practical fashion.
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TheBrain
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by TheBrain »

Welcome, evelyanne. I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. With your personal and professional interests, at least you are learning how you can prevent that same fate.

I'm going to AHS and look forward to meeting you. (I must get my plane tickets this week!)

I must say I'm envious of your health writing work for doctors and nutritionists. And to have Terry Wahls as one of your authors is awesome. She inspires me immensely. My first exposure to her was her TedTalk (http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxIowa ... -Wahls-Min).

I was a technical writer/editor in the computer software industry for 22 years, and at several points, I wanted to make the transition into medical writing. But inertia set in, and I never followed through. I stayed in my cushy job until I got so sick of it I had to quit.

Now, I'm in the early stages of developing a web site on celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, as well as on gut issues that can continue even after one goes gluten free. So I'm getting my medical writing done in that way.
ApoE 4/4 - When I was in 7th grade, my fellow students in history class called me "The Brain" because I had such a memory for detail. I excelled at memorization and aced tests. This childhood memory helps me cope!
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evelynanne
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by evelynanne »

So great to hear from all of you, and I really look forward to meeting you! I don't get in until kind of late on Wednesday night (if I would have known better, I would have booked an earlier flight!). So, hoping I will still be able to find you all, perhaps on a break or in the evening or for dinner on the first day, if I don't find you before. I don't know if she has to do special presenter things, but I can see if Terry wants to have a meal with you all or some other sort of sit-down. I will tell her that many of you are fans and follow her protocol, or versions of it. (She is the only author I have ever worked with who lives in the same city as I do, and we are also friends and are travelling together.)

One of the reasons I am attending this symposium is because Terry told me I should go since Drs. Gundry and Bredesen were speaking. While working on her books (we are just finishing up her new cookbook, which will be out next year), we often talked about whether the ketogenic diet was appropriate for apoe4, and this is something she is only now learning about because I keep mentioning it to her! She is always trying to figure out how I can do the Wahls Protocol and keep the sat fat under control, which is a major shift for her because in her world, sat fat is a good thing. Personally, I prefer a more vegan-style diet because I feel better on it and tend to get inflammation when I eat meat (and my blood sugar tends to stay pretty steady on healthy carbs and comes down very quickly). So Terry's 9 cups is always a goal for me. However, the meat and fat part is less appealing to me, and I don't seem to have any trouble with gluten or other whole grains. I had the impression this was preferable for apoe4--although I see a lot of you on this forum are trying ketogenic diets or eating very low carb (I know Bredesen recommends a low-GI diet, while Gundry recommends high plant fat, high resistant starch, but not animal products...), so I'm curious about all of this and looking forward to learning more.

Food and diets are such a complicated subject and so individual that of course it is impossible to know for sure what is absolutely best for any one person, but it sure is an interesting subject to pursue!
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Julie G
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Re: New here and attending Ancestral Health Symposium

Post by Julie G »

Ah, evalynanne- I'm heartened that Dr. Wah's has such a great grasp on our struggle. FWIW, many here have managed to achieved a ketogenic diet (a la Dr. Wahl's-super high veg) while minimizing saturated fat to <10% of total calories and still yielding excellent CAD biomarkers. We use high polyphenol EVOO, avocados, olives, nuts and seeds instead. We're eager to share what we've learned through our N=1 experimentation and delighted to get Dr. Wah's "take" on our dilemma. I'll send you a PM so that we can try to arrange a time for a gathering.
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