Alright,so blood sugar control is still excellent. On day 6 I posted a fasting glucose of 79 and this morning an 80. This, in comparison with the GF’s 89 and 85 on ultra low-carb. This puts me right in the middle of the ?perfect? range according to the work of Emanuel Cheraskin on dental health, who discovered that 75 to 85 mg/dl was the magic range. Once again, to quote Nancy Appleton:
?Dr. Cheraskin’s research suggests that fasting blood glucose is a good indicator of homeostatic mechanisms in the body.
To Appleton and the health legends she holds in the highest regard, including Melvin Page, homeostasis is everything ? the body in its most fluid, harmonious, and balanced state. She makes the bold claim that:
?So many people have thyroid problems, exhausted adrenals, insufficient estrogen (women), and glucose that is unable to get into the cells to function. All of these problems are signs of an endocrine system not functioning well. Put the body back in a state of healthy homeostasis, let it heal, and the glands will start secreting the correct amount of hormones.
I would personally revise that statement to account for cellular hormone resistance, as most people with signs of insufficient insulin (high blood sugars), low sex hormone levels, low adrenal hormone levels, and low thyroid produce plenty of each of the respective hormones and often more than can be considered normal. It’s overcoming resistance to the respective hormones that is the key, not necessarily boosting production.
But let’s be honest about this whole vegan diet. Making food like this for Aurora: a marbled slab of bacon-wrapped blackened ribeye topped with grilled asparagus and Maytag bleu cheese is pretty disheartening alongside a raw snow pea salad, a bowl of dry, air-popped popcorn, and a plate of overripe pears?
I'm just wondering how someone can come to the conclusion that it's either: most people have enough hormones, and that they just have resistant receptors; or, people don't have enough hormone. For thyroid hormones – which, you can have a wide series of tests done – you can get thyroid tests on TSH, which is supposed to be the "most accurate" out of any thyroid test – and that is supposed to tell you if you have resistance to a thyroid hormone. Supposedly it's very rare. But if we're going by doctors claiming their patients have normal levels of hormones – we can either assume some tests are corrupt and very incorrect (either by procedure or the actual range), or some are more efficient than others. Again..we're dealing with a lot of different hormones. They shouldn't be lumped together.
I also don't understand the method of any old hormone receptor having the ability to be resistant to hormones so easily. What would cause such a phenomenon? Insulin resistance is the most common – and that's because insulin is used for different functions entirely, especially different than sex hormones; though, every hormone is used for different functions and has it's own function.
I don't think you have gone very much into detail as to how resistance of hormones is supposedly more common than a lack of them. It's not surprisingly easy to be low in certain hormones, or be to high in others..or imbalanced in general.. for example,
"Chronic constipation, and anxiety which decreases blood circulation in the intestine, can increase the liver's exposure to endotoxin. Endotoxin (like intense physical activity) causes the estrogen concentration of the blood to rise."
The estrogen rise would decrease progesterone (and, low progesterone can create a lot of problems). Often high cortisol and high estrogen are common together, and, when that happens, high cortisol can cause T4 to be converted into RT3 – which can then block thyroid hormone receptors from receiving T3 whenever the body starts to produce it again; or if it is supplemented. If we're going to go by tests, even then, RT3 seems like an incredibly common problem among those struggling with low temperatures and very common symptoms of hypothyroidism. Most of them just seem to rely too much on medication – which, it's not the only approachable method.
Someone can't have high cortisol and expect that that is their only problem. It has a reaction on the body and other hormones in more than one way. I think we've said before it's not always so much an extreme deficiency of a hormone..but I think it's especially not always resistance either. I'd say it's different for certain instances..the ratio is important for progesterone and estrogen; and the thyroid hormones can easily not be plentiful, or the T3 can be blocked if there were too high amounts of stress hormone because of increased RT3. Where resistance comes into general play..I have yet to understand other than for insulin; or what would cause it in other hormones.
I have ordered some Cytomel and Metformin. I'm fed up with trying to resolve my issues via diet alone. I'll find and fix the real problems with my metabolism and then I expect my way of eating to be more effective.
Patrick
Hormone resistance could be a physiological response to the inability of the body to degrade hormones in the bloodstream. For example, the liver has a big job of degrading insulin, and if for some reason it has reduced function (from excessive fructose, maybe?) it might not be able to clear insulin as necessary. Cells in response will adapt by resiting the action of insulin on the cell, and therefore the pancreas will secrete more insulin, thus creating a downward spiral into poor health. I'm not sure about all hormones, but the liver (as well as kidneys) probably play a big role in clearing hormones from the blood.
With the knowledge that perceptions can be misleading, especially mine, and therefore for what these comments are worth, the primary motivator for many, many vegans (longer term ones) is NOT health. Sure, health issues are cited and used as reasons to eat in such a manner, but the greatest attachment (and expressive energy in some instances) is devoted to notions that veganism is 'more evolved', 'more spiritual', 'more ethical' etc etc.
No problems, each to their own, and rightly so.
But purported health benefits can be readily influenced by underlying motivators.
Dexter,
I'm pretty sure hormones always will be circulating in the blood; they don't get cleared. An excess would be obvious on a blood test – but that isn't the same as the receptors not responding to the hormones – I think you are thinking of blood sugar not clearing, which is part of what insulin's function is: to keep sugar from building up in the blood and elsewhere.
Ooh, I had a lunch a lot like Aurora's today. Awesome. Only instead of asparagus I had fried potatoes and creamed spinach. And strawberries with shlag for desert. Still too drunk to read the comments though.
Chloe,
I'm talking about specific hormone metabolism. Hormones when released in response to stimuli are only needed for a temporary amount of time. For example, large amounts of adrenaline create the fight or flight response, but when the threat is gone the excess adrenaline must be cleared from the blood to prevent it from continually stimulating the body. The liver participates in this clearing. Liver is the main producer of the insulin degrading enzyme, which removes insulin from the blood after it has done its job. I'm positing that the liver can become deficient in this function and lead to further physiological changes in an effort to maintain homeostasis, with cells learning to become less responsive to hormones because they are hanging around for too long.
The biggest danger of your diet might be a clogged gallbladder. Without fat to trigger bile release, it can get more and more concentrated, leading to stones.
Gallstones are a big problem for many when losing weight. Given that low-fat was a popular way to lose weight not that long ago…
And my point was that insulin and adrenaline are two different hormones, secreted by two different mechanisms (one by the adrenal glands; and one usually from cells in the pancreas) – each told to produce that hormone for different reasons.
Saying most hormonal problems are generally just resistance problems is a big thing to assume, especially because they all have different factors effecting them.
If someone can explain how hormones other than insulin become resistant, that'd be good (I'm guessing there's a lot of theories for that). In a cortisol resistance case (supposedly a rare genetic disorder), the body attempts to produce more cortisol to make up for the resistance. There you have high levels and a resistance combined.
The only other cause of hormone resistance I could think of would be if there was constantly too much of a hormone being produced..but, why would that happen with sex hormones? It doesn't seem as common, or as simply put here.
You brought up that it is the liver's job to clear hormones – but if it did not, the hormones would not build up and continue to cycle – but I am pretty sure they become mutated..maybe depending on the hormone..if circulating too long.
I feel personally I'm lacking all the hormonal and endocrine knowledge to further elaborate; and I was just saying I don't think many people hear are exactly more understanding of all the hormones either. I think there's something missing in all of this..and I was pointing out that; that people aren't just resistant to hormones or low/high in them. There's more to it, like, a couple examples: the ratio..or, possible flaws by the medical community of what range is considered normal..
Can anyone explain what is happening when a person, such as my husband, often says he is cold but feels like a human furnace to the touch? I'm not talking about if he's sick or has a fever. Something metabolic?
I have suspicions other than this that he has a low-functioning thyroid. Would that do it?
Thanks for your help!
Did you take a temperature?
Saying that hormones are typically low because of resistance was an oversimplification. I want people to understand that it is very rare indeed that someone actually has a full-on malfunctioning gland. One can have hormonal imbalances out to wazoo even with healthy endocrine glands that are pumping out plenty of juice. This is why the blood tests for hypothyroidism for example, don't reveal hypothyroidism. A person can have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism but the doc will rule it out based on presence of the hormones in the bloodstream. This is silly. Symptoms don't lie. Blood tests often don't show the whole story.
All hormones and neurotransmitters work on a lock and key system. Each has a series of receptor sites. As far as I know, that is the commonality amongst these hundreds of varied chemicals: from major hormones like norepinephrine and insulin to lesser known players like prolactin, vasopressin, leptin, oxytocin, and so on. Neurotransmitters from dopamine to serotonin to neuropeptide Y operate with the same setup.
Oh, and Brock. I noticed the other day you said you were thinking of having "a bear or two" with your lunch. Hey, man, I'm an advocate for eating plenty of food, but an entire bear or two is probably pushing it man.
The lock and key system is what helps maintain a balance. If too much of a hormone is being secreted, then receptor sites tend to shut down to keep the system from spiraling out of control. It's all part of the intricate homeostatic nature of our design.
Great explanation Matt!
I was wondering if the liver plays a role in this because it is responsible for removing hormones from the blood once they are no longer needed. With so many people having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, their livers are probably functioning in a suboptimal state, and not clearing out the hormones as necessary. This leaves the hormones circulating in the blood for too long and therefore decreased receptor response to reduce any effects. It's easy to measure insulin resistance because we know its job is to clear blood sugar, and if we can measure insulin levels in the blood as well as its intended target (blood sugar), we can tell is insulin is being responded to by cells. This is difficult with other hormones because they don't have such easily identifiable markers of biological activity. How would we test for thyroid activity? It does not have an easily identifiable physiological measure like blood sugar. It does affect many things, but not in an immediate manner like insulin and adrenaline for example do.
I noticed that in some earlier posts people were commenting about Schwarzbein not thinking thyroid was important. I disagree. She calls it a "secondary hormone," not because it is of secondary importance but because our eating and activity habits don't have an immediate effect of thyroid like they do on insulin and adrenal hormones. Her theory seems to be that when insulin and thyroid hormones are all out of whack, thyroid will never be able to be secreted in adequate amounts, as high levels of insulin and adrenal hormones tends to blunt the release of the secondary hormones such as thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, etc…When one eats regularly and properly, all of those primary hormones are reduced and the secondary hormones will be secreted as they should be to achieve a healthy body.
About your current diet: how do you think it helps to improve blood sugar? Does it force the body to deal with the problem? Would the same approach work but instead eating only white flour and sugar?
Matt,
As it happens I had a few sips of my friend's beer but that was it. I had two martinis though. But it was my birthday party and I hadn't had alcohol in any form since probably around June, maybe earlier. And as it happens though, two martinis was one too many. Clean living has killed by tolerance, for better or for worse; I felt really nauseous the whole rest of the day. Won't be doing that again.
I do want to say though that I am really excited about your current focus on insulin resistance. I also realized a while ago that there was a wide gulf between 'insulin management' and curing insulin resistance. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on the matter.
Best regards,
Brock
Dexter –
Very impressive comments. The liver certainly could play a very major role. There's no doubt that it could be huge factor, if not THE most important factor. As for the insulin/cortisol/adrenaline vs. thyroid debate a la Schwarzbein, it's definitely a chicken or egg question. The fact that Broda Barnes could prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes with thyroid extract alone led me to believe that the thyroid, and the functionality of thyroid hormones, is more of the Master and Commander.
Brock, I was just poking fun at you for misspelling "beer" as "bear" the other day. Got a good mental picture of you choking down bears with your lunch like they were a side dish or something.
Yes, overcoming insulin resistance is the true key. The moment of truth will be to see whether I am better able to eat a mixed diet after this trial, or if I'll be worse off than before I began. If I'm worse, one could assume that it's merely the starvation of a fat-free vegan diet that makes it effective. Of course, a little finger-pricking for a couple weeks cannot prove anything, but I'm still very interested to track these kinds of things.
Oh, okay. Ha ha. That's what I get for speedreading these comments.
I'm agreeing with the focus on the importance of the liver. The more I read about it the more amazed I am by how many jobs/processes it plays the central role in. It also points to why so many problems can be related. If you have a lot of fructose or alcohol messing up the liver, that probably messes up everything else.
Matt,
I have not been able get any books yet from my library by Barnes. Do you know if he was supplementing with thyroid to the point where his patients had physiologically normal levels, or was he using a pharmacological dose? Is it possible that giving his patients an excess amount of thyroid could have produced the health effects, similar to how taking steroids can produce beyond normal muscle growth?
Dexter,
If the liver became exhausted by chronically high insulin we wouldn't see insulin normalize so quickly with a change in diet. But we do see such a change, which tells me the liver is doing its job of regulating insulin levels.
No, it's the resistance in all of the body's tissues, particularly the fat, that's the problem.
Hmmmmm….this is making more sense perhaps why my Dr. is having me do this "liver cleanse" and diet.
yum, rice, veggies, fruit and some avocado oil(much better than olive oil!).
Maybe my 70 year old levels of testosterone will come up from this.
You can call me Moongleam….
Barnes gave incremental doses of dessicated thyroid until basal temps normalized and symptoms cleared.
Colon cleansing can benefit our body giving constipation relieve, increase energy and can help reduce weight. Body toxins should be eliminated from the system ensuring healthy vital organs and lymphatic system.
oh stop.