new mystery?

I had a "bad" night.  Dana Carpender is on my shit-list today!  ...Okay, not really -- i just needed a dramatic line.  ;-)  Sorry, D....

For years i've been using shirataki noodles;  i don't really LIKE them, but they're a convenient addition to otherwise-appropriate, favorite old recipes which unfortunately contain pasta.  If you handle them right and don't overload the dish, the slight extra chewiness isn't a big problem -- hell, some people's "al dente" pasta has worse texture.

Up to now i've used the "regular" version of shirataki, because i'll always and forever TRY to minimize soy products in my life.  In the cookbook "Fat Fast," the authors say that having done the math, the quantity of tofu in the hybrid noodles calculates out to be very small ("like a teaspoon of tofu per serving").  They also praise the improved texture of the product, and its availability in shapes that are more appropriate for certain dishes than are the angelhair-like shirataki noodles i get in my local international-foods stores.  In addition, they note a new product which is supposed to be similar to tofu-shirataki but without the soy-- Pasta Zero.

I went searching online for PZ (amazon.com didn't have it), and discovered that it's (theoretically) stocked at a local grocery, so i went searching IRL for it:  no soap!  So as not to waste my errand, and because i'd been assured by knowledgeable people that tofu-shirataki has very little actual soy in it, i picked up a couple of bags of the fettucine version.  We tried one of them last evening in a signature dish of J's, shrimp fra diavolo.

Well, the noodles did the job of "carrying" the spicy tomato mixture to the mouth, and kept the shrimps company on the plate, but they're still recognizably shiratakis.  They more closely resembled wheat pasta to-the-eye than do the non-tofu kind, and the fettucine shape works better than angelhair, but that's about it.  We concluded that the tofu-shirataki was a better choice for certain dishes for non-gustatory reasons.

I changed my mind at 3:00 this morning, when i was awakened by a hot-flash from hell and a very unhappy belly.  I don't know what else it could have been, if not those noodles!  Though sleepy, i couldn't doze off again till almost 6.  A few systemic enzyme caplets helped my stomach, but i really didn't know what was going on with it -- a "normal" person waking up to a belly like that would probably run for the cookie jar!  It still feels funky.

Now, i haven't suffered a hot-flash since i started using progesterone creme, which was before i started my current regimen of pregnenolone tablets.  Notably, too, i didn't get the "hypo" symptoms i usually feel when overdoing legumes, which are abnormal chilliness, edema or brain-fog.  My symptoms were on the estrogenic page, not the thyroidal.

Since there's another little bag of the noodles in the fridge, i'll conduct another experiment with the tofu-shirataki sometime when i'm feeling particularly great (good baseline) and in an analytical mood.  I'm not ready to condemn the product YET ... but i'm definitely suspicious.

FOR THE RECORD:  so far, i LOVE my "Fat Fast" cookbook!  The recipes i've tried so far have been innovative and intelligently-crafted.  We're looking forward to trying a lot more of them.

you know your energy is better when...

That was almost like the old "you might be a redneck if" jokes.  ;-)

With me it's the temptation to run up my staircases instead of walk, the impulse to spring out of my reading-chair and do/fetch things in other parts of the house, or to spontaneously play chasing games around the dining table with Spenser.  (Of course, for the sake of my iffy knee i find it's a good idea to resist springing up those stairs....)

The supplements i've added, which i'm inclined to credit with this recent improvement, are carnitine, pregnenolone and epimedium -- which, though a little surprising, aren't really too "out there."  The last two are boosting my age-related decrease in endogenous hormones, and the first ... long story.

Wooo was taught in her medical training that carnitine binds to thyroid receptors, and is therefore not recommended for improving health in hypothyroids.  OTOH, i also read that "Hypothyroidism has been found to deplete the body of L-carnitine stores. A six-month placebo-controlled study cited in the August 2001 edition of 'The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism' examined the effectiveness of L-carnitine supplementation for the management of hypothyroidism. The subjects were given 2 to 4 g of L-carnitine daily, and the study concluded that L-carnitine effectively helped to reverse and prevent symptoms of hypothyroidism. The research is preliminary, however...." *

Whichever is the "true story" i'm not qualified to judge, but all i read gave me sufficient encouragement to TRY carnitine and see what might happen.  I started with a small bottle of 500-mg caps, but am now using a BIG bottle of the one gram size.  Again, i don't KNOW how it works but i can speculate -- does carnitine perhaps spare thyroid hormone because the receptors it binds to are where FAs are passed into cells for use?  That is, after all, what carnitine is famous for doing, and one of the many things thyroid does as well.

Short version:  carnitine HELPS.  At least, it helps ME.

Pregnenolone, as you may know, is a precursor to a whole avalanche-ful of hormones and neurotransmitters.  I was getting SOME benefits from the progesterone creme i was using, but for various reasons i chose to swap over to an "upstream" supplement -- and am i happy i did.  The negative effects of my previous progesterone boost aren't an issue anymore, and there are many less-specific plusses!  Doubtless, my body is partitioning the pregnenolone to the balance it considers appropriate -- and its judgement seems to be sound.  Is it making more estrogen, more testosterone, more progesterone, what?  I really don't care which -- i just like it.

But why don't the makers of epimedium supplements label them EPIMEDIUM?  It would make things less embarrassing when you have to ask for help in the health-food store!  ;-)  Actually, i'm joking -- the virtue of being "older'n dirt" is that you care much less for what people think!  The common name you find on the supplement bottle is HORNY GOAT WEED, widely publicized for improving sexual performance -- it's splashed in good-sized type across the label.  I think all of us users agree, though, that its beneficial effects go far beyond improving blood flow to the penis....

LOL -- it's hard to care too much about the WHY, when the WHAT is so satisfactory!  I certainly don't agree with Dr. Lustig across the board, but when he said that quality of life pretty much equates with how much energy we are able to burn, i have to raise my glass to him!

_____
*  from www.livestrong.com/article/432486-carnitine-uses/#ixzz23D0J4Kz7 -- and i'm not a fan of the site.  :-)  if they hadn't quoted a "respectable" source, i wouldn't have credited it as much as i did.

"normal response" to carbs, at last?

There's no doubt about the fact that i feel best on VLC.  But surprisingly enough after this holiday of unusual carb intake, my mood and physical sense of well-being are pretty high.  Why?  I can guess, and it's all about exercise, omega-3 and hormones.

We walked ALL over the downtown area of Seattle, and though the hills did a number on my back and legs, i know we burned a boatload of glucose in the process.  I ordered seafood at meals whenever i wasn't actually craving red meat.  I encouraged mitochondrial performance with carnitine, and boosted raw material for testosterone production with pregnenolone supplements.  Through it all, when not having to wait in uncomfortable public areas for late trains, i've been sleeping well.

I've resisted snacking most of the time, and when i succumbed it was generally to pistachios or cashews (once, waiting for the dinner train an extra 3 hours or so after having no lunch, i had myself a happy-hour with cheese-flavored rice crackers and Abbeys).  I've tried to satisfy appetite on the meat or egg main dish , and then "fill up the corners" (if you'll forgive the Hobbitism) with non-starchy vegetables, then potatoes and finally with sweets.

The celebration-worthy part of gaining a little fat through it all is that leptin is doing its proper job of inhibiting subsequent appetite.  Eating a good-sized meal with more carbs than i'm used to is not spurring me to chow down again in a couple of hours, but to WANT to fast for awhile!  Many days, we've been eating a late breakfast and an early dinner, and that's all.

Well, i'm not going to "continue the experiment" when we get home -- i'll be gratefully returning to the VLC diet i actually PREFER.  I enjoyed that croissant and the four bites of sourdough toast i had, but i feel no desire to make a regular indulgence of it.  Pushing my luck any further is NOT at all tempting!

superior P-word supplement

I'm very pleased with how i feel, using the pregnenolone.  It's been a two or three weeks since i started taking a 10 mg sublingual every day and i have that "balanced" feeling which, at my age, is cause for rejoicing.  I've also settled into taking a gram of carnitine every morning, which together with the P does a much better job of providing steady (if not abundant) energy than tyrosine, which tends to make me uncomfortably wired.

The thing i didn't like about the progesterone creme i used to use was that i definitely put FAT on the portions of my anatomy where it was applied.  And those places where it is recommended that one apply the creme? -- EXACTLY where i don't need more fat!  :-)  I ended up preferring to rub it into my butt, to balance my proportions out a bit.  When i first learned about maca, i thought maybe that would be good for me, but hearing that it can be detrimental to thyroid function, i haven't played with it much yet.

I didn't get an immediate boost from the pregnenolone -- it took at least a week for me to feel that something good was happening.  Of course, being the cautious self-experimenter that i am, i wasn't about to start off with the massive dose some people use.  However, being also of an age at which natural pregnenolone production is significantly reduced, i felt confident about doubling the amount suggested by Dr. Peat -- 10 mg is the smallest concentration offered through Amazon.

I didn't get the boundless energy of youth, but i do feel good about adding this supplement to my regimen -- the more so because it IS the dissolve-in-the-mouth sort (i do get tired of swallowing pills).  Perhaps when the time comes to buy another bottle i'll go for the 25 mg size.  If i don't like the way i feel with the higher dosage, i'll just bite the little suckers in half.

supplements "as needed"

When i go out of town, my supplement-taking becomes a lot less organized.  It's a pain to have to pack  all those little bottles -- they take up a lot of space which means they have a train-case of their very own.  I can't always spread them out at my destination (if i stay in one place more than a couple of days), which makes my taking them more haphazard.  But when i leave some behind at home, i see pretty clearly which ones have a strong impact on my well-being.

At home, they're ranged on my side of the bathroom counter with the contact-lens solutions, deodorant, salt container for the neti-pot, electric toothbrush and scented candle -- quite a lot of clutter!    But they're also organized by time-of-day when they're taken, so i don't have to seek for the first-thing-in-the-morning bottles, and the midday take-these-together items are easily identified.  I use my comb as a divider between those i've already taken and the ones i haven't.  If i choose not to use a particular supplement today, i turn the bottle upside-down as i put it to the left of the comb.  I "have to" do things like this -- i have so vivid an imagination that sometimes i wonder if i DID take those antihistamines or just THOUGHT about it....

Being systematic about my supplement-taking has helped to define which nutrients are really necessary, and some of the conclusions are surprising.  After my thyroid glandular and the iodine and selenium, i find that the most obvious things i need to pack are the IRON and the BETAINE-HCl!  The latter is an "emergency" supplement -- indispensable when i'm so drained that my stomach doesn't work properly. My absorption of iron from foods is obviously so poor that without the supplement, taken on an empty stomach in company with selenium, C and B12, the amount of hair i shed is directly connected with my depletion.  I see NO correlation with shedding and copper, though balance of the two minerals is theoretically essential.

The "as needed" part is where things get tricky.  I "know" that cod-liver oil (or capsules of it), K2, acetyl-carnitine and CoQ10 are beneficial, and i KNOW that magnesium and zinc are essential, but i don't feel their effects much if at all.  I take them in modest quantities daily.  Carnitine i'm convinced is a good addition, but like vitamin C is a behind-the-scenes "plus" rather than a star on stage -- if i skip a day or two, i don't expect to experience a big difference.  Tyrosine is so potent a stimulant as well as a provoker of tremors, i'm treating it very gingerly these days.  If circumstances make me need to pour out my energy, i have no doubt that it is a good thing, but for an ordinary day i find it winds me up too much -- rather than improving thyroid function and boosting dopamine, it seems to prefer to take the highway to adrenaline, and i tend to secrete that a lot already.  The mucuna seems to be an antidote to tyrosine's action as an upper, balancing the catecholamines.

The pregnenolone arrived yesterday and i've let a 10mg sublingual melt in my mouth twice already -- i don't notice any reaction yet, but i'll keep you informed.  In my mid-life reduced-hormone state, i may find that getting used to it then dropping it again might show me its effects more clearly; that's a sure test for the iron.

[sigh]  The hoops i jump through, to try to function like a normal person...!!!  The young and "whole" -- that is, most paleo bloggers -- don't have a clue how fortunate they are.  And it's not like i "brought it on myself with poor choices."  :-P- - -  ...How do you blow a "razberry" using emoticons?