Karen, over at the Garden Girl blog, has a post up about stress. I found her observations head-and-shoulders above what I usually see written on the subject.
She used to find that stress motivated her to binge on comfort foods. I find that acute stress causes a knee-jerk reaction to want a drink, but that a "stress formula" B-vitamin-complex also answers the drive. It sure sounds as though the unpleasant-emotion aspect of an acute stressor depletes SOMETHING that any of these responses has an ameliorating action....
I seem to over-secrete adrenaline in response to a lot of things which can reasonably be described as stressors. Always have -- when I was four years old, and a neighborhood bully was picking on the neighborhood "developmentally challenged" girl, I sent him home with a bloody nose. DON'T piss off mini-Tess.... For the most part, my reactions got more civilized as I grew older, but I never have believed in tolerance to assholes -- treating them like reasonable human beings is a waste of time and effort! ;-)
Reading things on "how to deal with stress" is usually another time/effort waste. Meditate -- bullshit! If I could relax to the point of being able to meditate with the flood of epinephrine coursing through my veins, would I have a stress problem at all? No: what is needed is an EMT-quality intervention, not an ideal-world wispy little panacea....
I suspect that popping that B-vitamin may be the best initial response -- our bodies are screaming "eat!" or "drink!" for some reason, after all. After that, it will of course depend on the nature of the stressor and our own neurotransmitter status and personalities. Dealing with a real-world problem will (with any kind of luck) make that problem a thing of the past. Other relaxing activities, particular to each of us (hot bath with a good book, here) will help once the acute phase is over. After THAT, meditation should be possible.
But I don't know -- punching out a bully still has its attractions!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
paleo healing in the filthy middle ages
I've been alternating non-fiction reading (Hyperlipid) with something much lighter -- Cadfael. I've always loved history and murder mysteries, so this is doubly entertaining. I'm constantly having to nip over to Wikipedia to check up on people, places and events of which i don't know enough. A rabbit trail led me to Henry V of England (who was portrayed so compellingly by Kenneth Branagh...).
It seems that once during his tumultuous and eventful life, Hal got an arrow wound in his face. If he'd been anyone less important, it probably would have been the death of him. Prince Henry, however, had the best medical attention to be found in the western world at the time. They managed to extract the arrow head without doing any more damage than had already been done, then treated the wound with alcohol and HONEY. Yep, good old-fashioned honey, the back-country antiseptic!
The alcohol step sure must have stung, though....
It seems that once during his tumultuous and eventful life, Hal got an arrow wound in his face. If he'd been anyone less important, it probably would have been the death of him. Prince Henry, however, had the best medical attention to be found in the western world at the time. They managed to extract the arrow head without doing any more damage than had already been done, then treated the wound with alcohol and HONEY. Yep, good old-fashioned honey, the back-country antiseptic!
The alcohol step sure must have stung, though....
Sunday, April 6, 2014
damn -- who IS blogblog?
Reading, reading, reading....
When the Hyperlipid posts get to the point that most of the comments are posted by amateur nutrition-tweakers rather than the professional ones, you learn really fast whose statements are worth reading, and which should be skipped entirely. Blogblog's have always been in the former category. This morning's post of mine is inspired by this comment:
I particularly like this statement. When I mention to some people that vegetables are not that important for vitamin/mineral acquisition, that actual intervention studies show that increasing fruitsandvegetables don't show benefit, and that plant antioxidants are a double-edged sword, they usually assume i'm anti-vegetable (as I AM anti-fruit).
I no longer believe that fruitsandvegetables should occupy the generally-prescribed large part of the nutrition plate (or pyramid, depending on the graphic you fancy). I don't believe they do ME much good, if any. I still eat a few of them, because I perceive some provide more by way of taste-pleasure or stimulant-benefit than they do damage. I believe eating "mostly plants" makes ME feel like shit -- but go for it yourself if you want to.
Whoever Blogblog is/was, I'd like to thank him for being the tireless BS-buster I've enjoyed reading in the Hyperlipid archive comments. So often it's he who refutes the utter nonsense that Peter didn't have time to deal with.
When the Hyperlipid posts get to the point that most of the comments are posted by amateur nutrition-tweakers rather than the professional ones, you learn really fast whose statements are worth reading, and which should be skipped entirely. Blogblog's have always been in the former category. This morning's post of mine is inspired by this comment:
"There are plenty of reasons to eat plant foods without invoking antioxidants. Plants have stimulant, sedative, antimicrobial, antihelminthic, anti-nausea, diuretic, anti-spasmodic and a host of other properties."
I particularly like this statement. When I mention to some people that vegetables are not that important for vitamin/mineral acquisition, that actual intervention studies show that increasing fruitsandvegetables don't show benefit, and that plant antioxidants are a double-edged sword, they usually assume i'm anti-vegetable (as I AM anti-fruit).
I no longer believe that fruitsandvegetables should occupy the generally-prescribed large part of the nutrition plate (or pyramid, depending on the graphic you fancy). I don't believe they do ME much good, if any. I still eat a few of them, because I perceive some provide more by way of taste-pleasure or stimulant-benefit than they do damage. I believe eating "mostly plants" makes ME feel like shit -- but go for it yourself if you want to.
Whoever Blogblog is/was, I'd like to thank him for being the tireless BS-buster I've enjoyed reading in the Hyperlipid archive comments. So often it's he who refutes the utter nonsense that Peter didn't have time to deal with.
Friday, April 4, 2014
eating liver and LIKING it!
I accomplished something great today -- I concocted a dish that the grandkids LOVED ... and which contains a respectable quantity of liver! :-D
This combination has been on my mind for some time, and I was delighted to find it actually WORKED. How often do we have "brilliant" ideas that just don't pan out?! Well, at least I do....
I combined pretty homogenously:
1# ground beef
1# ground pork
1# bacon, cut in 1" pieces
1/2# beef liver, soaked in milk, parboiled and chopped fine
1/2 c. barbecue sauce
2 eggs
It made quite a good-sized meatloaf in a large baking pan. I covered it with foil so it would stay moist while it had time to cook through, and I put it in a 350 F oven for an hour and a half. At the end of that time, I uncovered it and drizzled it with some of my home-made catsup and put it back in the oven for a half hour.
The children, 7 and 10, LOVED it. M polished hers off in record time, and G had seconds. My daughter said she thought it was the best meatloaf she'd ever tasted, though I reminded her that it was very much like the one I used to make, way-back-when -- just more nutritious.
Success! And success feels GOOD.
This combination has been on my mind for some time, and I was delighted to find it actually WORKED. How often do we have "brilliant" ideas that just don't pan out?! Well, at least I do....
I combined pretty homogenously:
1# ground beef
1# ground pork
1# bacon, cut in 1" pieces
1/2# beef liver, soaked in milk, parboiled and chopped fine
1/2 c. barbecue sauce
2 eggs
It made quite a good-sized meatloaf in a large baking pan. I covered it with foil so it would stay moist while it had time to cook through, and I put it in a 350 F oven for an hour and a half. At the end of that time, I uncovered it and drizzled it with some of my home-made catsup and put it back in the oven for a half hour.
The children, 7 and 10, LOVED it. M polished hers off in record time, and G had seconds. My daughter said she thought it was the best meatloaf she'd ever tasted, though I reminded her that it was very much like the one I used to make, way-back-when -- just more nutritious.
Success! And success feels GOOD.
"moderation in everything" damaged my whole life
It's easy to have 20-20 hindsight. In the light of visible results, we can work back through the woven threads and see where the bad choice turned what might have been a beautiful tapestry into one with clashing colors or premature dilapidation. The temptation is to exclaim, "what the hell were they thinking," when excusing ignorance is probably a better alternative.
I was weaned at two months of age, but I refused a bottle so "the help*" taught me to drink from a sippy-cup. At the age of six months, my doctor didn't like how passive I looked, and ended up diagnosing me as hypothyroid. Family anecdotes describe how my mother was obliged to keep taking me to the doctor for YEARS to get my dosage correct. I took a series of different prescription thyroid medications for over a half-century, until I decided to run a little experiment....
The final chapters of that experiment are recorded on this blog. Short version: my theoretical hypothyroidism was caused by malnutrition. Careful supplementation and the use of OTC raw desiccated thyroid tablets have got me to where I have no symptoms. Take THAT, medical industry! A self-taught nobody healed herself without a damn bit of paid help! (I got a LOT of help, though, from those who unselfishly share their knowledge and experience online, for free.)
I learned that I MUST get my vitaminA pre-formed (and the 23andMe service confirmed my genetic ineptitude at converting beta-carotene to A, and many other things). I learned that I had to take METHYLcobalamin in sublingual form -- the cheap version (cyanocobalamin) is detrimental to my thyroid function, and the swallowed kind isn't nearly so well absorbed. I learned that I must stay away from "vegetable oils" and that tallow is my best friend. I learned that though I absorb nutrients decently from liver and oysters, I don't do it nearly so well from other foods, so careful supplementation of certain minerals is essential. I learned, in short, that most of the nutrition "knowledge" out there is the worst kind of hearsay, superstition and ignorance.
But it wasn't only my low thyroid status that did the damage; poor nutrition, both direct and through poor absorption had other repercussions. The neurotransmitter issues are blatant to me now, but nobody ever had a clue before.
If only "convention wisdom" of the mid-twentieth-century had clung to the traditional, rather than being dazzled by the promises that Science could improve on Nature! If only an old-fashioned insistence that children get their cod-liver oil and plenty of hearty nutrition-dense food had prevailed, instead of relying on "fortified" white bread, margarine, breakfast cereals, potatoes, and that so-very-common-sensical notion that snacks are fine IN MODERATION! I got animal products in moderation, so that should be plenty, right? Nothing wrong with daily popcorn or cookies or crackers, now, is there? And certainly the narrow variety of canned vegetables we ate were just as good as fresh -- we were assured that they were picked at perfect ripeness and processed immediately, to preserve their vitamins.
Result: a metabolism which was powered by the cheapest commodities -- wheat, corn oil and potatoes. A metabolism run on glucose, in short, which promotes serotonin at the expense of dopamine. Suboptimal levels of the fat-soluble vitamins, doubling-down on the damage -- "the family" disliked milk of more than 2% fat, hated lard and couldn't afford butter. At least we weren't afraid of sunshine in those days....
What does serotonin do, though, as compared with dopamine? Dopamine is responsible for the drive that makes us keep persevering in the face of discouragement, and serotonin is what tells us to relax ... and give up. As a teen I remember coming home from school and taking a nap -- this is NOT normal behavior in a kid who is asleep by 10pm and drags herself out of bed in the morning when the alarm goes off minutes before having to leave for school....
The endocannabinoid dance is well-described by Chris Masterjohn, here.
Time-honored practices were handed down for centuries for a reason. Before the age of advertisement, people learned every-day practices from one's parents, who learned it from theirs. It worked, or we wouldn't be here. I'm happy to say, at least what I've learned by studying my life and health will be of use to my grandchildren!
______
* before anyone leaps to the conclusion that my parents had means, it was CHEAP to get a little household help way back when I was an infant. My grandmother probably paid her, anyway....
I was weaned at two months of age, but I refused a bottle so "the help*" taught me to drink from a sippy-cup. At the age of six months, my doctor didn't like how passive I looked, and ended up diagnosing me as hypothyroid. Family anecdotes describe how my mother was obliged to keep taking me to the doctor for YEARS to get my dosage correct. I took a series of different prescription thyroid medications for over a half-century, until I decided to run a little experiment....
The final chapters of that experiment are recorded on this blog. Short version: my theoretical hypothyroidism was caused by malnutrition. Careful supplementation and the use of OTC raw desiccated thyroid tablets have got me to where I have no symptoms. Take THAT, medical industry! A self-taught nobody healed herself without a damn bit of paid help! (I got a LOT of help, though, from those who unselfishly share their knowledge and experience online, for free.)
I learned that I MUST get my vitaminA pre-formed (and the 23andMe service confirmed my genetic ineptitude at converting beta-carotene to A, and many other things). I learned that I had to take METHYLcobalamin in sublingual form -- the cheap version (cyanocobalamin) is detrimental to my thyroid function, and the swallowed kind isn't nearly so well absorbed. I learned that I must stay away from "vegetable oils" and that tallow is my best friend. I learned that though I absorb nutrients decently from liver and oysters, I don't do it nearly so well from other foods, so careful supplementation of certain minerals is essential. I learned, in short, that most of the nutrition "knowledge" out there is the worst kind of hearsay, superstition and ignorance.
But it wasn't only my low thyroid status that did the damage; poor nutrition, both direct and through poor absorption had other repercussions. The neurotransmitter issues are blatant to me now, but nobody ever had a clue before.
If only "convention wisdom" of the mid-twentieth-century had clung to the traditional, rather than being dazzled by the promises that Science could improve on Nature! If only an old-fashioned insistence that children get their cod-liver oil and plenty of hearty nutrition-dense food had prevailed, instead of relying on "fortified" white bread, margarine, breakfast cereals, potatoes, and that so-very-common-sensical notion that snacks are fine IN MODERATION! I got animal products in moderation, so that should be plenty, right? Nothing wrong with daily popcorn or cookies or crackers, now, is there? And certainly the narrow variety of canned vegetables we ate were just as good as fresh -- we were assured that they were picked at perfect ripeness and processed immediately, to preserve their vitamins.
Result: a metabolism which was powered by the cheapest commodities -- wheat, corn oil and potatoes. A metabolism run on glucose, in short, which promotes serotonin at the expense of dopamine. Suboptimal levels of the fat-soluble vitamins, doubling-down on the damage -- "the family" disliked milk of more than 2% fat, hated lard and couldn't afford butter. At least we weren't afraid of sunshine in those days....
What does serotonin do, though, as compared with dopamine? Dopamine is responsible for the drive that makes us keep persevering in the face of discouragement, and serotonin is what tells us to relax ... and give up. As a teen I remember coming home from school and taking a nap -- this is NOT normal behavior in a kid who is asleep by 10pm and drags herself out of bed in the morning when the alarm goes off minutes before having to leave for school....
The endocannabinoid dance is well-described by Chris Masterjohn, here.
Time-honored practices were handed down for centuries for a reason. Before the age of advertisement, people learned every-day practices from one's parents, who learned it from theirs. It worked, or we wouldn't be here. I'm happy to say, at least what I've learned by studying my life and health will be of use to my grandchildren!
______
* before anyone leaps to the conclusion that my parents had means, it was CHEAP to get a little household help way back when I was an infant. My grandmother probably paid her, anyway....
Thursday, April 3, 2014
angels dancing
...on the heads of pins, of course!
In my whole-archive reading of Hyperlipid, I'm well into that point where the comment section is full of an entire different caliber of people than it originally was. Instead of the serious students of nutrition and metabolism, we now have the Monday-morning quarterbacks. [sigh]
So many amateur debaters! So many theoreticians! So many people who don't have a horse in the race, but who love to try to convince each other that obscure physiological details matter in the cause and solution of obesity!
So many people who SHOULD have something better to do with their lives. Are they doing this at work/school instead of attending to business? If they're doing it in their evenings and nights, they probably need to re-think how they're wasting their youth!
I, and many others like me, have inborn (or acquired) health issues which can be ameliorated by diet and supplementation. What I've learned in the past three years has improved the quality of my life immensely. I've learned what foods make me feel good, and which ones sap my energy and damage my well-being. My continuing trials of supplements and minor tweaks of macronutrient balance (within a LC-paleo template) are still teaching me about what my body doesn't do well, for which I NEED help.
But those healthy young people -- why aren't they out there DOING THINGS instead of obsessing over conditions that they'll never have to deal with? It's a shame they're not concentrating on getting as much as they can out of life, their social possibilities, families and careers, instead of burning the midnight oil. For the gods' sake, take advantage of this period in your lives!
In my whole-archive reading of Hyperlipid, I'm well into that point where the comment section is full of an entire different caliber of people than it originally was. Instead of the serious students of nutrition and metabolism, we now have the Monday-morning quarterbacks. [sigh]
So many amateur debaters! So many theoreticians! So many people who don't have a horse in the race, but who love to try to convince each other that obscure physiological details matter in the cause and solution of obesity!
So many people who SHOULD have something better to do with their lives. Are they doing this at work/school instead of attending to business? If they're doing it in their evenings and nights, they probably need to re-think how they're wasting their youth!
I, and many others like me, have inborn (or acquired) health issues which can be ameliorated by diet and supplementation. What I've learned in the past three years has improved the quality of my life immensely. I've learned what foods make me feel good, and which ones sap my energy and damage my well-being. My continuing trials of supplements and minor tweaks of macronutrient balance (within a LC-paleo template) are still teaching me about what my body doesn't do well, for which I NEED help.
But those healthy young people -- why aren't they out there DOING THINGS instead of obsessing over conditions that they'll never have to deal with? It's a shame they're not concentrating on getting as much as they can out of life, their social possibilities, families and careers, instead of burning the midnight oil. For the gods' sake, take advantage of this period in your lives!
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
post-prandial
Is it thermogenesis, or is it a histamine reaction? [sigh]
As Almond-Oh once observed, the more I learn, the more ignorant I feel! :-) It's an hour after I ate lunch (leftover grilled chicken leg quarter), and i'm getting that post-prandial heat sensation. Once upon a time, I would have congratulated myself on being able to raise my metabolism to burn off the fuel. Before that, I might have thought I was having a hot-flash. Before THAT I might have thought I needed to adjust the thermostat (i'm currently in gulf-coast Texas, where it's common to have the a/c on in the dead of winter).
After my horrible experience in the summer, of severe histamine-intolerance, I tend to suspect that sort of reaction. So I just popped a "tab" of nicotine gum, which I find an excellent remedy for "histamine poisoning." If (when the a/c fan has been off for a couple of minutes) I no longer feel overheated, it was probably THAT. (Yep, it seems to be IT.)
SO many little things interact within the body to make it perform the way it does -- it's awe-inspiring. These physical vehicles of ours are constantly adjusting chemical parameters ... and yet we all want a simple answer for why we feel "this" way or how we come to have "that" reaction. Tweak one hormonal level and get a dozen little changes all the way down the cascade. Supplement a neurotransmitter (or even one of its precursors), and get a surprising response that you never expected....
Since my LAST trip (Colorado, earlier this month) I've been on a minimalist supplementation regimen -- i'm only taking the bare minimum. I didn't carry my iron on that trip, and I felt the difference so I brought it this time. I brought the betaine-HCl but since my bout of gastritis it seems to do more harm that good, but I do have the serrapeptase for just-in-case. Wine has been boosting the stomach-acid as well, so I've reduced my meal-time serving from four-to-six ounces down to three. BEING in TX, I've used the Daosin (it's like Histame) a couple of times, too -- this climate is horrible for people who have allergic sensitivities! It never gets cold enough to kill fungi and yeasts, and the humidity fuels them too.
Hoping the allergens don't interfere too badly with weight-loss, because the Low-Carb Cruise is in six weeks, and i'm hoping that my trial with Kwasniewski's Optimal Diet will get me to my weight goal ... which San Francisco's food environment and various infections over the past year have postponed! I have twelve pounds to go. We're taking our daughter's family with us this time, and anticipate a glorious vacation! :-D
As Almond-Oh once observed, the more I learn, the more ignorant I feel! :-) It's an hour after I ate lunch (leftover grilled chicken leg quarter), and i'm getting that post-prandial heat sensation. Once upon a time, I would have congratulated myself on being able to raise my metabolism to burn off the fuel. Before that, I might have thought I was having a hot-flash. Before THAT I might have thought I needed to adjust the thermostat (i'm currently in gulf-coast Texas, where it's common to have the a/c on in the dead of winter).
After my horrible experience in the summer, of severe histamine-intolerance, I tend to suspect that sort of reaction. So I just popped a "tab" of nicotine gum, which I find an excellent remedy for "histamine poisoning." If (when the a/c fan has been off for a couple of minutes) I no longer feel overheated, it was probably THAT. (Yep, it seems to be IT.)
SO many little things interact within the body to make it perform the way it does -- it's awe-inspiring. These physical vehicles of ours are constantly adjusting chemical parameters ... and yet we all want a simple answer for why we feel "this" way or how we come to have "that" reaction. Tweak one hormonal level and get a dozen little changes all the way down the cascade. Supplement a neurotransmitter (or even one of its precursors), and get a surprising response that you never expected....
Since my LAST trip (Colorado, earlier this month) I've been on a minimalist supplementation regimen -- i'm only taking the bare minimum. I didn't carry my iron on that trip, and I felt the difference so I brought it this time. I brought the betaine-HCl but since my bout of gastritis it seems to do more harm that good, but I do have the serrapeptase for just-in-case. Wine has been boosting the stomach-acid as well, so I've reduced my meal-time serving from four-to-six ounces down to three. BEING in TX, I've used the Daosin (it's like Histame) a couple of times, too -- this climate is horrible for people who have allergic sensitivities! It never gets cold enough to kill fungi and yeasts, and the humidity fuels them too.
Hoping the allergens don't interfere too badly with weight-loss, because the Low-Carb Cruise is in six weeks, and i'm hoping that my trial with Kwasniewski's Optimal Diet will get me to my weight goal ... which San Francisco's food environment and various infections over the past year have postponed! I have twelve pounds to go. We're taking our daughter's family with us this time, and anticipate a glorious vacation! :-D
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