We just got back from another trip to Ol' Virginie -- had a great time with both our kids and their loved ones, visited some great vineyards, and got thoroughly worn out. ...It's nice to be home again!
As usual, i look enthusiastically forward to eating the way i usually do. Most of the trip i was "good" but on three occasions i just shrugged and ate "the bad stuff." I'm fortunate that i don't have a problem with trigger foods; this was my annual pizza binge, and it'll hold me for awhile. ;-) As a matter of fact, shortly before we started our vacation we ordered Dana Carpender's "500 Paleo Recipes" and when i had to turn off the ipad to charge properly (in the car), i opened the cookbook and got out a package of tape-flags and started reading -- OMG, do her recipes look good! Going shopping today to pick up a few ingredients!
It occurs to me that "what we eat" is similar in theory to "what we read." If we choose things to read that are merely amusing or titillating, we finish our books to find ourselves neither more informed nor wiser, but perhaps with implanted notions that affect our thoughts and behaviors with deleterious patterns. For example, "teabag philosophers" dangle plausible ideas that people want to hear and whip up their readers' emotions against innocent hate-targets. Fantasy-fiction (like television) shows us a non-existent cosmos and solves ITS problems in a way that isn't applicable in the real world. Romantic novels allow all kinds of improbable love-related behaviors to become plausible, believable, EXPECTED -- to people who will then suspect that their perfectly normal and decent relationships are deficient somehow. And i won't even MENTION bad self-help books... I tend to consider television/movie watching as a lazy form of reading. Questionable reading leads to poor thinking, choice-making and behaving.
Correspondingly, choosing "wrong" things to eat -- amusing and titillating things -- not only fails to nourish and fuel our bodies adequately, so that we can do what we need to in this world, but can set us up for disease, misery and death. When i look at all the "food porn" on commercial television and facebook, i sometimes think to myself DON'T PEOPLE REALIZE HOW NUTRITIONALLY BEREFT THIS STUFF IS? I see restaurant "healthy choices" like breaded and baked chicken breast meat in the middle of a virtual LOAF of white bread and slathered with a sugary sauce -- can anyone think that this is anything but JUNK? I find over-sugared cocktails, and dessert portions that are not only enough for four people, but excessively sweetened to the point that i can't stand to eat them. I detect "all-beef patties" which are obviously lying because of the state of my teeth when i finish eating them.
No wonder that once those twenty-somethings who used to get trashed on beer, mojitos and cosmos notice they've developed quite a belly when they pass the age of 30 (27 according to Dr Wong, 33 by the observation of Dr Donaldson). No wonder that when these people decide to start families, they often need medical help to conceive. No wonder that the mother's elevated glucose and insulin lead to their children's predisposition to obesity, diabetes and mental/emotional problems -- after all, folic acid is important in pregnancy, and orange juice is a great source of it.... (<-- sarcasm notice)
Reading for pure amusement has its place, just like treat-foods do. The problem arises when the treat occupies a central position in daily life. New low-carbers sometimes fall into this trap -- instead of concentrating on "meat and vegetables" they go searching for lower-carb substitutions of foods that got them in trouble in the first place, and which have minimal capability of digging them out of the hole they're in. In choosing our daily diet, we HAVE to concentrate on getting the (animal) protein we MUST consume along with whatever plant materials our bodies tolerate and our minds/systems "necessitate."
Even though nuts are good food, a little goes a long way and they can actually threaten to take the place of more valuable choices. Pork rinds and bacon, ditto -- it IS possible to overdo some of these things, though some people want to think otherwise. Is our goal to eat as much as we possibly can without gaining, or is it to be healthy and feel good? Although when one comes from a starvation diet of poor nutritional content to LCpaleo, the former seems important, once one gets over the hunger and starts becoming replete, i think the latter goal is the important one.
I'm not trying to take away your almond-flour birthday cake, thanksgiving pumpkin pie, or christmas trifle -- I'm saying that a constant stash of low-carb cookies is a questionable thing. I'm saying that good LC pizza is a nice thing to have in your repertory but not valuable to eat weekly while liver IS. I'm saying that a new Harry Potter movie every year has been fine, but the unending flood of crappy superhero remakes is NOT. I'm saying "pick your poison" on a VERY INfrequent basis.
Writing this reminds me of an obese friend who used to eat things she knew she shouldn't, "just this once" ... every single day.
Showing posts with label Dr. Wm. Wong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Wm. Wong. Show all posts
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
systemic enzymes ... finally
Back in '04 or '05, my doctor suggested i take Iodoral. Naturally, i started reading up on the stuff; as a result i ended up exploring this site and finding out about systemic enzymes, too. Sounded interesting, so i then had to start reading up on THOSE.
It seems that in Germany, back in the cold-war days, Eastern Bloc sports trainers were looking for a better way to control inflammation in their over-trained corps. Hearing of a Munich doctor/manufacturer who was getting good medical results from enzymes for inflammation, they managed to procure a large amount and started experimenting. To their surprise and delight, there were benefits above and beyond the immediate goal. More info here, if you're interested....
Systemic enzymes (designated so to distinguish them from digestive ones) have an application in not only fighting inflammation but in "eating" a lot of proteins which aren't beneficial to the body. Protein and fibrin coatings on viruses and cancer cells, excess scar tissue, debris in the bloodstream that clogs microcirculation, fibrosis that limits organ function, all this is controllable with enzyme use. They've been used in Europe and Japan for decades, but they still haven't widely caught on in this country.
The body, it turns out, makes a finite amount of enzymes in a lifetime, no matter how long it lasts. This fact could be used as an argument that all nature really wants us to do is survive till we reproduce, because at around the age of 27 our production of enzymes tapers off dramatically, to "keep" us as best they can on dwindling supplies. As an example within the experience of most people, compare the scars you get now to the ones you got as a child -- now they're thicker and less pliable, more unsightly. The logic goes, then, that supplementing the enzymes your body now doles out so scantily will help you heal and maintain functions like a younger person does.
When i started taking them, i felt like i was beginning to experience fibromyalgia, and i had carpel-tunnel symptoms when i did any sewing or crocheting -- these faded away. I've been curiously resistant to viruses since i began enzymes, too. A couple of years ago, the dog roughed up my thumb REAL GOOD, but i can only see the scar if i look very closely. I'm a believer.
I understand that systemic enzymes do great things for diabetics and cancer-sufferers as well as helping to keep viruses at bay. Of course, mainstream medicine pooh-poohs their use for anything but digestion. They claim that orally-administered enzymes won't live to reach the bloodstream, let alone pass the blood-brain barrier to aid a person with a brain tumor. As usual, they're wrong, because the latter has been documented to happen. Of course, to survive stomach acid, the supplement must have the "enteric" coating -- that's one reason why your brand of enzyme is important. The other big reason is, they have to be handled right; overheated enzymes are dead enzymes, and they won't help anybody.
I started out using a brand called Vitalzym, then when Dr. Wong came out with his own (stronger) version, i switched to Zymessence. Unfortunately, they BOTH changed their formulations, and i was about ready to dump the whole lot of them. :-P I'm happy to say, it wasn't necessary, because the lady at Quackcenter (a nurse with a PhD) had done her research and found someone who made a product that turned out to be identical to the ORIGINAL Vitalzym -- it's called Exclzyme -- and i'm contentedly taking that these days. Three caps in the morning a half an hour (at least) before anything else goes in my mouth.
Did i mention that in the last seven or eight years i've only had the flu once or twice, and very lightly? A lot of supplements and foods have done good things for me, but THAT i credit directly to the systemic enzymes.
It seems that in Germany, back in the cold-war days, Eastern Bloc sports trainers were looking for a better way to control inflammation in their over-trained corps. Hearing of a Munich doctor/manufacturer who was getting good medical results from enzymes for inflammation, they managed to procure a large amount and started experimenting. To their surprise and delight, there were benefits above and beyond the immediate goal. More info here, if you're interested....
Systemic enzymes (designated so to distinguish them from digestive ones) have an application in not only fighting inflammation but in "eating" a lot of proteins which aren't beneficial to the body. Protein and fibrin coatings on viruses and cancer cells, excess scar tissue, debris in the bloodstream that clogs microcirculation, fibrosis that limits organ function, all this is controllable with enzyme use. They've been used in Europe and Japan for decades, but they still haven't widely caught on in this country.
The body, it turns out, makes a finite amount of enzymes in a lifetime, no matter how long it lasts. This fact could be used as an argument that all nature really wants us to do is survive till we reproduce, because at around the age of 27 our production of enzymes tapers off dramatically, to "keep" us as best they can on dwindling supplies. As an example within the experience of most people, compare the scars you get now to the ones you got as a child -- now they're thicker and less pliable, more unsightly. The logic goes, then, that supplementing the enzymes your body now doles out so scantily will help you heal and maintain functions like a younger person does.
When i started taking them, i felt like i was beginning to experience fibromyalgia, and i had carpel-tunnel symptoms when i did any sewing or crocheting -- these faded away. I've been curiously resistant to viruses since i began enzymes, too. A couple of years ago, the dog roughed up my thumb REAL GOOD, but i can only see the scar if i look very closely. I'm a believer.
I understand that systemic enzymes do great things for diabetics and cancer-sufferers as well as helping to keep viruses at bay. Of course, mainstream medicine pooh-poohs their use for anything but digestion. They claim that orally-administered enzymes won't live to reach the bloodstream, let alone pass the blood-brain barrier to aid a person with a brain tumor. As usual, they're wrong, because the latter has been documented to happen. Of course, to survive stomach acid, the supplement must have the "enteric" coating -- that's one reason why your brand of enzyme is important. The other big reason is, they have to be handled right; overheated enzymes are dead enzymes, and they won't help anybody.
I started out using a brand called Vitalzym, then when Dr. Wong came out with his own (stronger) version, i switched to Zymessence. Unfortunately, they BOTH changed their formulations, and i was about ready to dump the whole lot of them. :-P I'm happy to say, it wasn't necessary, because the lady at Quackcenter (a nurse with a PhD) had done her research and found someone who made a product that turned out to be identical to the ORIGINAL Vitalzym -- it's called Exclzyme -- and i'm contentedly taking that these days. Three caps in the morning a half an hour (at least) before anything else goes in my mouth.
Did i mention that in the last seven or eight years i've only had the flu once or twice, and very lightly? A lot of supplements and foods have done good things for me, but THAT i credit directly to the systemic enzymes.
Monday, April 23, 2012
we KNOW what to do in order to lose weight
Yes, we KNOW what we have to do: we just have to make ourselves do it. We have to turn ourselves into fat burners, and when you've reached this age, it can get tricky.
Most middle-aged women have damaged their metabolisms by trying to adhere to what we THOUGHT were valid recommendations for a healthy diet, and then -- when that proved not only to be empty rhetoric, but downright harmful -- we restricted calories time and again, in order to try to combat nature. A lot of us MADE OURSELVES into carb burners through decades of a low-fat diet, which effectually turned off our fat-metabolizing enzyme production. Dr. Wong tells us that we begin lowering production of ALL proteolytic enzymes at age 27 ... so at age 57 it may be darned hard to start making the "right" ones again. Dr. Donaldson doesn't say the same thing in so many words (i don't believe that the action of systemic enzymes was well-understood in his day), but he wrote about the magical age of 33, when he started seeing the effects of aging accelerate.
Changing over from burning carbohydrates for energy to primarily burning fats, then, is going to be WORK. If the individual has a rigorous schedule already, and struggles to find the energy to meet it, s/he may experience difficulty in "getting over the hump," which is generally known as the "low-carb flu." Some people, in fact, take an extended time to get past this , indicating that their metabolisms are the more screwed up. However, look at it this way: would you prefer to spend a couple of days (best case) to a couple of months (worst case) with lower energy reserves, or would you rather restrict calories FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, in order to avoid the damage which results in diabetes, NAFLD, senile dementia, heart disease, Parkinson's, etc etc etc....
When i was 30, i wouldn't have HAD to commit to either a glucose-based or a fatty-acid-based metabolism -- at that age i seemed to have pretty robust metabolic flexibility, compared to a lot of young people we see nowadays, who grew up swilling quantities of sodas and fruit juices. When this flexibility fails, however, one's choices become far more limited.
I'm sure my readers will have observed that every succeeding attempt at weight loss is more difficult and less productive than the one before it. What it boils down to is, we don't have time to waste in accomplishing what we want. In order to be able to do the everyday tasks that life requires, we need to create the strength and agility NOW. We have to make sure our bodies are not overburdened with fat, weight-damaged joints and deteriorated tissues NOW. Trying out the techniques which younger people swear works for THEM may put us so far behind in the race that we'll end by giving up in despair (e.g., the "leptin reset" protocol which a certain young woman said finally worked for her ... AFTER she put on a dozen pounds!) -- that just ain't gonna cut it.
I -- WE -- know what we have to do.
Most middle-aged women have damaged their metabolisms by trying to adhere to what we THOUGHT were valid recommendations for a healthy diet, and then -- when that proved not only to be empty rhetoric, but downright harmful -- we restricted calories time and again, in order to try to combat nature. A lot of us MADE OURSELVES into carb burners through decades of a low-fat diet, which effectually turned off our fat-metabolizing enzyme production. Dr. Wong tells us that we begin lowering production of ALL proteolytic enzymes at age 27 ... so at age 57 it may be darned hard to start making the "right" ones again. Dr. Donaldson doesn't say the same thing in so many words (i don't believe that the action of systemic enzymes was well-understood in his day), but he wrote about the magical age of 33, when he started seeing the effects of aging accelerate.
Changing over from burning carbohydrates for energy to primarily burning fats, then, is going to be WORK. If the individual has a rigorous schedule already, and struggles to find the energy to meet it, s/he may experience difficulty in "getting over the hump," which is generally known as the "low-carb flu." Some people, in fact, take an extended time to get past this , indicating that their metabolisms are the more screwed up. However, look at it this way: would you prefer to spend a couple of days (best case) to a couple of months (worst case) with lower energy reserves, or would you rather restrict calories FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, in order to avoid the damage which results in diabetes, NAFLD, senile dementia, heart disease, Parkinson's, etc etc etc....
When i was 30, i wouldn't have HAD to commit to either a glucose-based or a fatty-acid-based metabolism -- at that age i seemed to have pretty robust metabolic flexibility, compared to a lot of young people we see nowadays, who grew up swilling quantities of sodas and fruit juices. When this flexibility fails, however, one's choices become far more limited.
I'm sure my readers will have observed that every succeeding attempt at weight loss is more difficult and less productive than the one before it. What it boils down to is, we don't have time to waste in accomplishing what we want. In order to be able to do the everyday tasks that life requires, we need to create the strength and agility NOW. We have to make sure our bodies are not overburdened with fat, weight-damaged joints and deteriorated tissues NOW. Trying out the techniques which younger people swear works for THEM may put us so far behind in the race that we'll end by giving up in despair (e.g., the "leptin reset" protocol which a certain young woman said finally worked for her ... AFTER she put on a dozen pounds!) -- that just ain't gonna cut it.
I -- WE -- know what we have to do.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
i can't bear eating all this FOOD!
The scale is down 3/4 pound again, and i even allowed myself half a cup of cooked white rice with my beef tenderloin last night.
But my discomfort level has risen: between the lack of salt and the high meat intake (about 50% higher than it was a month ago), my stomach is not at all happy, even with daily use of betaine-HCl. Today is a day for readjusting the formula. (I just took a 1/4 t. of sea salt, washed down with water, as a good beginning.)
I was VERY comfortable on the IF technique of coconut milk in my coffee for breakfast, and only two real meals per day. The only trouble with that was, i wasn't losing any weight, despite consuming fewer calories than i am now. (So THERE, CICO people!) When one of Donaldson's patients reported in without having lost any weight on one occasion, it turned out that he had begun skipping breakfast in hopes of reducing faster....
Yesterday, i DID feel improvement in my bad knee, and the other felt pretty much normal again. I did my half-hour of walking on the treadmill upstairs instead of around the neighborhood, because i suspected the cold was affecting my knee badly. Treadmills aren't perfect walking-machines, though -- posture and muscle use don't mimic REAL walking (see Dr. Wong...). Today i'm going to walk outside at a warmer hour, or use the stationary bicycle; i customarily use it for my Tabata sprints, as it's MUCH kinder to the knee.
...I just resolved to name my knees -- "my once-injured knee" is so unwieldy -- so it'll be Ralph (the "bad" one) and Louie. ;-) I'm so original!
Volume of meat is going down! Instead of 8 ounces, it's going to be 6, and i'm going to put salt on it. Truly, it hasn't been my taste buds that missed the salt, it's been my stomach-acid missing the chlorine! In all the agonizing over sodium in the last few decades, "experts" predictably overlooked the other important ingredient of table salt. Without a good source of chlorine, less stomach-acid is produced -- and contrary to what "everybody knows," an awful lot of indigestion is due to LOW acid, not high. As a hypothyroid, i'm already inclined to have low stomach acid (which is why i keep the betaine supplement on hand), and i've been exacerbating it. That stops now.
On the positive front, allergic symptoms are reduced on my lower-toxin diet. I was surprised to see, under the strict PPC regimen, that i still showed a little cheek-flushing in the evenings -- something that i hitherto blamed on wine. The most likely suspects were nightshades (which i took it very easy with), eggs (eaten in moderation), and nuts (mostly consumed in the form of coconut milk). Last night i took stock, and found the flushing significantly reduced.
Well, today is going to be a low-intake day, just to reset my system. I WILL stick to the approved food list in "Strong Medicine" though! Considering that i lost approximately 3 pounds in three days, there's no doubt that Dr. Donaldson was onto something, even though the medicine seems to be a little TOO strong for ME.
p.s. Despite the dire warnings of reduced thyroid function on a VLC diet, i've noticed no such reaction -- and believe me, i know what it feels like. I hypothesize that: 1) sufficient protein ingestion raises insulin levels enough to allow the receptors to work just fine, and; 2) being well-adapted in ketosis with plenty of glucose made by the liver from protein AND fat (as confirmed with my glucometer) provides all the glucose necessary for T4 conversion. Dare i suggest that the trials where thyroid function was impaired took place in particularly-established glucose burners...?
But my discomfort level has risen: between the lack of salt and the high meat intake (about 50% higher than it was a month ago), my stomach is not at all happy, even with daily use of betaine-HCl. Today is a day for readjusting the formula. (I just took a 1/4 t. of sea salt, washed down with water, as a good beginning.)
I was VERY comfortable on the IF technique of coconut milk in my coffee for breakfast, and only two real meals per day. The only trouble with that was, i wasn't losing any weight, despite consuming fewer calories than i am now. (So THERE, CICO people!) When one of Donaldson's patients reported in without having lost any weight on one occasion, it turned out that he had begun skipping breakfast in hopes of reducing faster....
Yesterday, i DID feel improvement in my bad knee, and the other felt pretty much normal again. I did my half-hour of walking on the treadmill upstairs instead of around the neighborhood, because i suspected the cold was affecting my knee badly. Treadmills aren't perfect walking-machines, though -- posture and muscle use don't mimic REAL walking (see Dr. Wong...). Today i'm going to walk outside at a warmer hour, or use the stationary bicycle; i customarily use it for my Tabata sprints, as it's MUCH kinder to the knee.
...I just resolved to name my knees -- "my once-injured knee" is so unwieldy -- so it'll be Ralph (the "bad" one) and Louie. ;-) I'm so original!
Volume of meat is going down! Instead of 8 ounces, it's going to be 6, and i'm going to put salt on it. Truly, it hasn't been my taste buds that missed the salt, it's been my stomach-acid missing the chlorine! In all the agonizing over sodium in the last few decades, "experts" predictably overlooked the other important ingredient of table salt. Without a good source of chlorine, less stomach-acid is produced -- and contrary to what "everybody knows," an awful lot of indigestion is due to LOW acid, not high. As a hypothyroid, i'm already inclined to have low stomach acid (which is why i keep the betaine supplement on hand), and i've been exacerbating it. That stops now.
On the positive front, allergic symptoms are reduced on my lower-toxin diet. I was surprised to see, under the strict PPC regimen, that i still showed a little cheek-flushing in the evenings -- something that i hitherto blamed on wine. The most likely suspects were nightshades (which i took it very easy with), eggs (eaten in moderation), and nuts (mostly consumed in the form of coconut milk). Last night i took stock, and found the flushing significantly reduced.
Well, today is going to be a low-intake day, just to reset my system. I WILL stick to the approved food list in "Strong Medicine" though! Considering that i lost approximately 3 pounds in three days, there's no doubt that Dr. Donaldson was onto something, even though the medicine seems to be a little TOO strong for ME.
p.s. Despite the dire warnings of reduced thyroid function on a VLC diet, i've noticed no such reaction -- and believe me, i know what it feels like. I hypothesize that: 1) sufficient protein ingestion raises insulin levels enough to allow the receptors to work just fine, and; 2) being well-adapted in ketosis with plenty of glucose made by the liver from protein AND fat (as confirmed with my glucometer) provides all the glucose necessary for T4 conversion. Dare i suggest that the trials where thyroid function was impaired took place in particularly-established glucose burners...?
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