Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer's, cardiovascular, and other chronic diseases; biomarkers, lifestyle, supplements, drugs, and health care.
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Barry Pearson
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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mike wrote:
Barry Pearson wrote:Before we had artificial lighting, we were constrained by sunlight. In Africa, being nearer the equator than most places today, there is more consistency of lengths of daylight. So our distant ancestors evolved with redish light early and late, (sunrises and sunsets are redish), and white light in the middle of the day. I assume our bodies (including brains) are compatible with that.
Except that the "red" light at sunrise and sunset are in the visible range of light, which is quite a bit different than the longer wavelengths of Infrared light. Early man was much more likely to encounter Infrared radiation in the middle of the day, as sunlight warms objects which then in turn emit infrared. Here is a good link to learn more about the Electromagnetic Spectrum:

http://labman.phys.utk.edu/phys222core/ ... ctrum.html
We are exposed to infrared whenever there is sunlight. We just can't see it.

I've had one of my digital cameras converted for infrared photography.
It involves replacing the UV/IR-blocking filter with a just-infrared-passing filter.
This is one of the companies that can do this; see under "Infra Red Conversion":
https://www.infraredcameraconversions.co.uk/
See various options:
https://www.infraredcameraconversions.c ... 4593501215
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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wocky wrote:Barry-
You should get tested, it's not an expensive test. The point of my post was that I SHOULD have low oxLDL because of my diet (I took krill oil astaxanthin too) and all other numbers point to that, but it's not the case for me. I have had a difficult time finding information on what causes the oxidation of LDL in the blood. Everyone says high blood sugar but my personal experience doesn't jive with that. Here's my other data point: My sister in law has familial hypercholesterolemia. Her LDL-C is well over 200, her doctor wanted to put her on statins. She's a vegan...so her diet is rich in carbohydrates/grains, probably has a fair amount of seed oils. She underwent a CAC and full lipid panel. Her crp was similar to mine @ .3, her triglycerides are great, oxLDL was 29, and CAC came back at zero. How does the IR hypothesis explain this? I am thinking my genes just suck and apoe4s like to oxidize their LDLs more than other genotypes. I think caution is warranted.

My doctor has had me up my vegetables from 1 serving per day to 5-6 servings per day. I also stopped doing IF and am eating 5-6 smaller low carb meals per day, and I'm slowly swapping out red meats, bacon/sausage, and cheese (all my favorite foods), for seafood, avocados, and olive oil, all of which I am able to source locally. I'm really not happy about it though and want to believe that a carnivore diet will work for me, but my oxLDL number quite frankly has me terrified. I'm retesting in January and will report back.
Thanks. I probably will get it tested sometime.
I hope you have better news in January. I would be interested in the results.

In the meantime, I'm confident that I don't have the problem you describe.
I've never read or heard of symptoms like that. I found a couple of articles (below) that may be relevant.
I doubt if it is a specific ApoE4 problem. Otherwise I think I would have been aware of more cases like yours.

I eat Two Meals A Day with no snacking or grazing. Snacking or grazing cause metabolic disorders.
I feel it is essential not only to keep my blood glucose very low and stable, but also keep my "area under the insulin curve" low.
I find the idea of swapping out red meat weird. It is one of the safest foods around!

Articles I've found:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is- ... ldl-698079
https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/66/2/474
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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Barry Pearson wrote:We are exposed to infrared whenever there is sunlight. We just can't see it.
Yes, but not because of sunset or sunrise.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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mike wrote:
Barry Pearson wrote:We are exposed to infrared whenever there is sunlight. We just can't see it.
Yes, but not because of sunset or sunrise.
Correct. It's there in sunlight all the time.

The point I have been making is that our distant ancestors were exposed to infrared at the ends of their illuminated day.
So my use of Red (+ Infrared) Light Therapy at times that are roughly compatible with those ancestral ends of day should be safe.

If anyone here wants a deep-dive into Red Light Therapy, this book appears to be comprehensive:
"Low-Level Light Therapy: Photobiomodulation". Hamblin, Ferrarest, Huang, de Freitas, Carroll, and others. (2018).

It comprises 20 main chapters, (in about 370 pages), each with supporting citations to academic (etc) literature.
It covers the concepts and why it works. Then it describes what studies have identified for a large range of biological processes.
It says little about Alzheimer's and doesn't mention ApoE4. (It's hard to do controlled studies on Alzheimer's).
But it does discuss a range of related topics concerning brain health. Strokes, Traumatic Brain Injury, BDNF, etc.

I bought my equipment primarily for improving the effectiveness of my heavy/high-intensity exercises.
Exercise in general is recognised as contributing to aspects of brain health. (I expect everyone here knows that!)
For example, TED Talks :
https://www.ted.com/talks/sandrine_thur ... ere_s_how?
https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_suzuki_ ... _exercise?

A Google search suggests "Red Light Therapy for Alzheimer's" is making progress. I suspect solid results are some way off.
https://www.google.com/search?q=red+lig ... heimer%27s
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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Have you had your oxLDL tested? My crp was .29, HDL>60, trigs<60...and oxLDL flagged super high at 204. My diet was probably 80% animal products, and I watched my carbs. I’m less than half your age too. Perhaps this is why apoe4s are told to limit sat fat?
I'm curious about your glycemic markers, wocky. You suggest they aren't contributors, but I'm curious about your most recent results around this same time for hgbA1c, fasting insulin and glucose. My guess is that if reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) is poor, even with moderately controlled glycemic markers, that our LDL has time to sit around and oxidize. Do you know your TSH? A sluggish thyroid could certainly be playing a part. I'm also curious about your SIL's glycemic markers if you know them. Best of luck sorting this out. You've expanded my thinking on this. Thanks for sharing.
The “4” variant was in hunter-gatherers, pre-agriculture. “3” then “2” arose to cater for agriculture.
I intend to avoid pretty-well anything from agriculture onward, especially anything invented by the food companies in the last 150 years.
(I avoid fiber. I believe it is part of the problem, not part of any solution).
Given the many reports of the damage that plants can do to the human brain, I consider it wise to avoid them. I find it easy to do so. I’ve consumed pretty-well zero plants during 2019.
(Apart from their fruits, plants have evolved defenses to avoid being eaten. Humans are “collateral damage”).
In effect, I eat more like a hunter than a hunter-gatherer.
FWIW, I agree with your assessment that E4s are evolutionarily designed to be hunter-gatherers and honoring that diet and lifestyle is an excellent tool to optimize our health. Ignoring the gathering part is an interesting experiment. Thanks for sharing your experience, Barry. Your TG:HDL ratio is excellent. Out of curiosity, do you eat anything besides meat? Are you eating the whole animal (nose to tail)? Do you use any supplements besides Astaxanthin? Have you considered doing a low radiation coronary calcium scan just as a baseline? I'm in the middle of the two part debate between Chris Masterjohn and Paul Saladino to learn more about this. For anyone interested, here's part 1 and part 2.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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The “4” variant was in hunter-gatherers, pre-agriculture. “3” then “2” arose to cater for agriculture.
I intend to avoid pretty-well anything from agriculture onward, especially anything invented by the food companies in the last 150 years.
(I avoid fiber. I believe it is part of the problem, not part of any solution).
Given the many reports of the damage that plants can do to the human brain, I consider it wise to avoid them. I find it easy to do so. I’ve consumed pretty-well zero plants during 2019.
(Apart from their fruits, plants have evolved defenses to avoid being eaten. Humans are “collateral damage”).
In effect, I eat more like a hunter than a hunter-gatherer.
FWIW, I agree with your assessment that E4s are evolutionarily designed to be hunter-gatherers and honoring that diet and lifestyle is an excellent tool to optimize our health. Ignoring the gathering part is an interesting experiment. Thanks for sharing your experience, Barry. Your TG:HDL ratio is excellent. Out of curiosity, do you eat anything besides meat? Are you eating the whole animal (nose to tail)? Do you use any supplements besides Astaxanthin? Have you considered doing a low radiation coronary calcium scan just as a baseline? I'm in the middle of the two part debate between Chris Masterjohn and Paul Saladino to learn more about this. For anyone interested, here's part 1 and part 2.
What I eat:

I photograph all my meals.
In May I tweeted photos of all my meals for a week! I hope this link works and you can view it:
https://twitter.com/BarryCPearson/statu ... 8643368960

The only plant foods I consume are: coffee; wine; herbs & spices.
The animal foods I consume include things that our distant ancestors couldn't imagine: smoked salmon; cheese; butter, etc!
Yes, I do eat pretty-well nose-to-tail, (not brains so far), but only perhaps once per week.
My meal components are so varied that I probably don't miss anything.
(Oily-fish for Meal-1 every day. I have Two Meals A Day).

Supplements:

I do take supplements.
Not the usual multi-vitamins, (for example no B-vitamins), but each one deliberately selected.
I also revise the list occasionally, and I'm currently doing this.

My most expensive supplement is Macushield Gold, corresponding to AREDS2 (Age Related Eye Disease Study 2).
I have a genetically raised risk of Macular Degeneration, and traces of drusen on my eyes.
I'm as desperate to preserve my eyesight as my brain!
For information, I'm a fan of Dr Chris A Knobbe, whose mission is to prevent/reverse MD.
We've been in email contact. He bases his therapy on an "Ancestral Diet".
I'm hoping that preventing Macular Degeneration and preventing Alzheimer's are consistent and compatible.

Here is my current list of other supplements. Perhaps over-kill, and under review.
D3, K2-MK7, Astaxanthin, CoQ10, Magnesium, PQQ, L-Carnitine, Carnosine, Alpha-Lipoic-Acid.
Plus silica, which may reduce Aluminium in case that may be an issue. (It isn't knowingly in my water supply).

CAC Scan:

I will get one when I can find a service in the vicinity.
(Ivor Cummins keeps reminding us about this! We follow one-another on Twitter).
But If I got a high score I don't know what I would need to do that I'm not already doing.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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I originally posted to this thread about my own "Carnivore Diet" or "Zero Carb Diet" experience.
But then I got off-topic (sorry!) and discussed "Red Light Therapy" and "Photobiomodulation".

This topic has had its own threads for some time. I've probably said little that is original here.
Here are some, (probably not all), other threads covering this topic:

Photobiomodulation
https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3876

Elevating HSP through Infrared light therapy or/and extreme cold (wim Hof orcryotherapy)
https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6379

VieLight
https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5291

Related, but probably not exactly the same:
Increased sauna use associated with less AD & Dementia in large, 20y study
https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2801

Wiki:
https://www.apoe4.info/wiki/Mitochondri ... er_Therapy

My equipment:
I make no claim that I use the best equipment available!
It is expensive and may not be the most effective. But it is all I have experience of.
https://joovv.com/
I have a Quad and a Mini+stand.
I bought them primarily for muscle-development by making my exercises more effective.
They appear to work for me.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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I read this thread with interest. I am choosing a different approach to diet. My family has a strong history of heart disease. My father, a trim and fit individual, died of a myocardial infarction while hiking on the Appalachian Trail two weeks after his 50th birthday. Four of his five siblings also died prematurely of heart disease and/or strokes.

My brother died of heart disease at age 65, and my mother had two heart attacks in her seventies. She is currently in the end stage of Alzheimer's; the first symptoms of her dementia showed up right after her second heart attack, and we initially thought the dementia was a result of oxygen deprivation during the event.

My immediate and extended family members all consumed meat and dairy products. In my thirties, my annual physicals showed low HDL and high LDL, with borderline high total cholesterol. (I understand the limitations of using LDL-C as a benchmark and that measuring LP(a) may be a better indicator of risk. But I'm using LDL-C as a proxy, since I have about 30 years of longitudinal data with that metric.)

At age 50, I became a pescetarian, and my LDL dropped out of the high range. Several years later, I stopped eating fish and eggs, and cut out dairy except for cheese. In 2013, after several years on that diet, my total cholesterol was 159, my HDL was 67, my LDL-C was 84, and my triglycerides were 38. My primary care physician at the Mayo Clinic said I had reached the "you don't have to worry about heart disease" point. (She is not a cardiologist, but I still liked hearing her say that. :) )

A couple of years later, I added fish and eggs back to my diet, along with a more liberal consumption of dairy, mostly in the form of yogurt and milk in coffee drinks. In 2016, my total cholesterol jumped back to 217, with HDL at 78, LDL-C at 129 (total nonHDL cholesterol at 139), and triglycerides at 49. I started cutting back on dairy and continued eating fish and eggs. Over the next two years, my total cholesterol and LDL-C dropped below borderline high but remained higher than I would like, given my family history.

Earlier this year, at age 67, I had my first coronary artery calcium scan. It came back with a score of zero, and I strongly believe that score is attributable to seventeen years of living on a mostly plant-based diet. A couple of months after I got my CAC results is when my brother died of a heart attack. The last picture he posted on his Facebook page the night he died was a picture of two ribeye steaks he had grilled for him and his wife. The irony was not lost on those of us who loved him.

I recently moved back to my almost-vegan diet. I still take fish oil, and I may continue doing that and/or eating salmon roe as my source of omega-3 fatty acids. I may also choose to eat salmon up to three times a week instead of, or in addition to, taking fish oil. I'll continue monitoring my lipid numbers, and try to add LP(a) and oxLDL to the mix.

I understand the argument that our ancestors probably ate meat and fish along with plants and tubers. I like to keep in mind, however, that evolution rewards those actions and alleles that keep you alive long enough to pass on your genes. It couldn't care less about genes and lifestyle choices that keep you physically and mentally healthy into old age.

I wish everyone well with the dietary choices they make. Each of us must make a personal bet with our lives on what we choose to eat, so it should be made with the best available evidence and consideration.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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I wish everyone well with the dietary choices they make. Each of us must make a personal bet with our lives on what we choose to eat, so it should be made with the best available evidence and consideration.
Beautifully said, xactly. I'm very sorry to hear of your brother's untimely death, my friend. Your CAC score must have been such a relief.

We always talk about how there is no ONE diet that will work for all of us. We are each a compilation of so much more than our shared ApoE4 allele(s). That said, evidence is strongly converging to demonstrate that the single most important thing our population can do is to avoid insulin resistance, which will ensure the maintenance of metabolic flexibility- the ability to burn both glucose and ketones to maximize fuel to our brains. Our diets should also enable us to avoid nutrient deficiencies, (especially those vital for our brains, like omega-3 & choline ) while minimizing inflammation.

Our unique genetic susceptibilities, combined with our current state of health, will likely point to very different diets for all of us. What leads to nutrient deficiencies and causes inflammation for me, may be very different than that which causes the same for you. Our community is a beautiful demonstration of the fact that many roads can lead to optimal health.
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Re: Zero carb diet will help prevent Alzheimer’s

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The important points appear to be:

1. People differ massively.

2. We need to have tests for our health so that we know how are bodies are responding and tweak accordingly.
Speaking as a (retired) systems engineer, having all those tests is one of the most important things that xactly does.

A worry I have is that the effect:
"It couldn't care less about genes and lifestyle choices that keep you physically and mentally healthy into old age"
validly made by xactly might be worse than "couldn't care".
It might be "antagonistic pleiotropy", and genes that were good up to reproductive age may actively kill us later!

(I personally don't subscribe to "all LDL is bad". I'm happy to have lots of LDL as long as it isn't oxydised or glycated).
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