THIS

...is an example of why Wooo is second only to Petro for truly useful nutrition-as-medicine information:

http://itsthewooo.blogspot.com/2014/10/cerebral-hypometabolism-calcium.html



http://itsthewooo.blogspot.com/2014/10/hypometabolism-ion-channels-and.html

My physiology and genetic problems are different from hers, but with the information I've gained on her blog, I can sift the potentially beneficial (and also the probably-inapplicable) information and try it on for fit in MY non-standard body.

A million thanks to ALL the bloggers out there who have helped so much by sharing their successes and frustrations, their shortcomings and triumphs -- I have been enriched more than I can even appreciate.

6 reasons for not including P. D. in my blog list

:-D  Actually, this goes for a lot of blogs.

But "P. D." seems to be a cooperative promoting certain speakers for get-togethers of health semi-professionals and other interested parties.  They seem to be supplementing their conventional incomes by whoring HIRING themselves out, and as a means of teasing their potential audiences, they post short, non-informative articles, letting everyone know how brilliant they are and how we can all benefit from it, if we'll only buy their books, or their programs, or travel to outer Mongolia to attend their next speaking gig....

DAMN.

Some bloggers share their hard-earned learning or experience altruistically -- others give us generalities and promise us more if only we'll join their following ... and fork over.  Nobody in the second category makes the cut on my blog list.  Some MAY have books to sell, though by-and-large they're books worth reading.  Some may have slightly inflated egos, but the quality of their thinking authorizes a certain amount of self-esteem.  ;-)

But for those who have puffed-up concepts of their own sagacity or authoritativeness (term chosen most deliberately) ... don't we have enough self-righteous idiots in the nutritional world trying to convince us that their pet hypotheses will make their fortunes transform the suffering masses?  I have my own faults, but encouraging asininity generally isn't one of them.

oh ... my ... GAWWWWD!

[evil grin]

I always felt dubious about the claim that a low-carb diet STARVES your microbiome, though of course it changes the precise populations, just like any diet followed consistently changes the enzymes your body produces, in order to process it efficiently.  Now i have some interesting food for thought -- my favorite kind, because it causes no unpleasant physical repercussions.  ;-)

Okay, so far we only actually have data on mice, not the best human-surrogate for nutritional matters, but at least it's a starting point.  Somebody i follow on twitter posted this a day or two ago, and unable to find it again, i went to the horse's mouth -- google -- and found what i needed because i managed to remember a key word:

FUCOSE

Check it out:  www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41134/title/Supporting-the--Good--Gut-Microbes/  -- a sugar i've never heard of before is what saves our little buggy codependants -- if we're mice -- so that when WE starve, deliberately or otherwise, the armies of our tiny master/slaves who help us break down our indigestibles don't become the first casualties of hardship.  OUR BODIES FEED THEM, EVEN WHEN WE OURSELVES ARE NOT FED.

Whoa.  Amazing.

And so much for the people who claim that our poor little gut-bugs go HUUUUUNGREEEE if we don't give them raw potatoes, no matter how much lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, sunchokes, avocadoes, bok choy, nuts, mushrooms, jicama, collards, rutabagas, seeds, squashes, cucumbers, onions, berries, garlic, cauliflower, celeriac, salsify, asparagus, artichokes, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, rhubarb, kale, seaweed, nopalitos, mirlitons, olives, capers, sauerkraut, carrots, turnips, beets, chilis, yams, cassava, plantains, eggplants, celery, bean sprouts, snow peas, sweet potatoes, water chestnuts, okra, endive, hearts-of-palm, bamboo shoots, green beans, etc, that we DO eat....

The studies have not been done on humans, apparently, but if mice can do it, i'll bet we can too.

fatigue -- a rant

AAAAARRRRGH!   ;-D   That feels better!

Read ANY list of "symptoms" for ANY deficiency/toxicity/signs-you-have-a-problem, and guess what is usually #1?  Right the first time!

Fatigue is a symptom of too little exercise ... or too much.  Fatigue shows up when you're not absorbing enough iron ... and when you have "iron overload."  Fatigue means you're not getting enough B12 ... I mean carbohydrates! ... it means you're hypothyroid ... uh -- it means you're getting too much protein! or ... not enough ... or ... ummmm....

[sigh]  Fatigue means your body is not happy, but exactly what your body isn't happy ABOUT is not actually being told.  There's a good chance that your thyroid DOES have something to do with it, but that's because it's the mechanism through which your body is down-shifted -- because an unhappy body wants to take it easy, husband its resources, and get better.  It doesn't necessarily mean that there's anything actually wrong with thyroid function -- it's doing what it was designed to do.

Fatigue can mean almost anything.  Don't let ANYBODY tell you that, because you're fatigued, you should subscribe to THEIR specific protocol.

replete nutrition + dopaminergic = win

REVISED:  the house was a little noisy today as I was writing, and I published too soon.  When I got back to it, I was appalled at my scattered thoughts....

***

How many women do you know who drag themselves through their days, dutifully and joylessly getting done what HAS to be done, and having a hell of a time mustering energy and enthusiasm for anything that might possibly be life-enriching?  What proportion of women in perimenopause and later fall on the sofa when they get home from work, and self-medicate for depression and exhaustion with chocolate or pizza or alcohol?

The problem is in neurotransmitters as well as hormones, in addition to chronic malnutrition.  I know -- i've been there.

I know IN SPADES because when i get behind on supplements, it catches up with me and ... there goes the ambition to accomplish.  The recipe is too much trouble to put together.  The laundry and the vacuuming can wait another day ... or four.  Just getting cleaned up and dressed to go out is enervating, and the thought of attending that performance predicts tedium, not enjoyment.

This is no way to go through life.  THIS is why the psychiatric end of the pharmaceutical industry is raking it in.  From Dr. Kildare to ER to House, we've been conditioned to believe that those god-like medical folks -- IRL as they can on television -- are able to fix everything.  Patients believe "there's a pill for that," and tamely take their SSRIs and other side-effect-loaded mood enhancers.  Trouble is, according to a lot of people in a position to observe, they don't work as advertised.

Why is it, that it's mostly women who display these problems?  Thanks to my favorite observing-and-researching nurse (and thank the gods her education didn't inhibit her continued curiosity and learning, as it has so many others), i know that it's not just female hormones which predispose our bodies to misery, but our balance of neurotransmitters which are the icing-on-the-cake ... uh, glaze on the salmon?  ;-)

Wooo's research indicates that serotonin is NOT a "feel-good" substance in and of itself -- she reports it as actually being numbing to the emotions.  Increasing the levels just makes the depressed feel ... less bad.  Her descriptions of individuals who have higher or lower natural levels of serotonin and dopamine caused me to suspect, long ago, that I had plenty of the former and not nearly enough of the latter.

Dopamine seems to be the neurotransmitter which gives us a reason to face the world.  It helps us to believe that our efforts will pay off, and things will turn out well.  Combine it with testosterone, and you get a lot of daring behavior.

On the other hand, female hormones + serotonin = anxiousness, fear of novelty, tendency toward sedentariness,  depression, FAT, ... all those things that make us "good wives and mothers" in an agriculture-based society.  It makes us conscientious secretaries and nurses, good lab-rats, and fabulous shoppers and consumers.  It promotes the "gatherer" part of the HG team, sending us searching for SOMETHING to give us a positive emotion:  for some women it's relationships (including the vicarious kind in fiction, tv and movies), with others careers, with still more substance-abuse -- substances like chocolate, wine, doughnuts and salty-snacks.

THIS SUITS SOCIETY JUST FINE.  Society doesn't like daring women, women who "demand too much" or compete too seriously.  Society prefers women who are a little bit dumb and definitely gullible, so companies like Weight Watchers can get them to subscribe OVER AND OVER to a weight-loss philosophy that doesn't work in the long run.  Society is delighted that women are consumers par excellence, who want to do the right things for their families and feel guilty when they don't make everyone happy, or when they get fat themselves.  Society is thoroughly satisfied that depressed women are given serotonin-boosters, even if it doesn't really help.

I benefit these days from what I've learned (and I can't help regretting that I didn't know sooner).  I take my favorite vitamin/mineral supplements, my thyroid-support, and I keep looking for the best dopaminergic herbs for my constitution.  So far, vitex seems to be IT.

If we are terribly deficient of ANYTHING supplementing can improve the situation -- this is why vitamin-D works wonders on indoor-dwelling oldsters, and why omega-3s looked so promising at first.  A huge proportion of people are lacking in some -- or many -- nutrients, and even a crappy ol' Centrum can improve their well-being!  Imagine getting ALL one's nutritional ducks in a row....

Getting one's hormones and neurotransmitters to an appropriate level to cope with life is just as important and much more difficult.  Everything interacts, and a lot of the interactions don't seem to be well understood yet!  Those of us who experiment with herbs and other supplements to try and optimize our lives have to be observant, patient and persistent -- we have to be what healers USED to be like before the days of lab-testing.  But I've found it to be worth the effort, especially since I came to appreciate dopamine's role.

back in gear

I can easily believe what Wooo attests -- that at certain times of the year we're prompted by things like day length and cooling weather to eat more.  For about the last week I've had quite a ravenous appetite, myself.  From a weight-maintenance point of view, I observe that if i don't make a good strong effort to fill up on the right foods, the wrong foods WILL highjack me!

Here at my daughter's house, it IS tricky, as my SIL and the kids definitely have higher-carb foods around that L and I are best off not eating.  The children are quite lean and active, and S is one of those enviable people who can eat "anything" without gaining weight -- so rice and potatoes and other things of that nature are just FUEL for them.  For me (and my daughter, as she gets older), these foods are best avoided most of the time ... but Nature is doing her best to get me to succumb!

I believe that my best defense is to fill myself up with plenty of red meat before thinking about eating anything else.  I learned a couple of years ago that i am perfectly well-nourished with 16-18 oz of beef or lamb per day in two or three meals, with a short cup of coffee or 4-oz serving of wine to wash each down (plus somewhere around 48 oz of water between meals).  That amount of food and liquid PERFECTLY satisfied me.

With all the coming and going I've done over the last week, i haven't been as stringent as i might have -- there have been lots of unusual things going on!  At home, i have a freezer-full of meats of all kinds, and no regular evening activities to cause me to have to either rush or postpone meals ... but here it's different, and sometimes a little unpredictable.  When i'm not the one controlling mealtimes as well as i do at home, it's way too easy to eat too many nuts or excessive cheese while waiting for the main culinary event.

Proposed solution:  while everyone is out at work and school, i'll get as much of my ideal diet as i can, and after they come home, i'll "fill up the corners" as the hobbits say, with the rest of my "ration" and permitted extras ... IF i feel the need. 

It's easy to see how people who don't have hearty meals every day might mess up their nutritional intake, just allaying hunger until they have a chance to eat a substantial portion of real food.  And it's also easy to see how those who have been frightened away from red meat and saturated fats might do a lot of snacking to feel satisfied, after a dinner of lettuce and chicken breasts!  If i felt i had to eat EITHER way, i have a sneaking suspicion i'd weigh an awful lot more than i do now....

no wonder i was tired!

It's not very unusual for me to suffer from headaches in Texas -- it rarely gets cold enough (in the places i spend time) to kill the nasty buggies, molds, fungi, weeds, et al that do horrible things to my sinuses and other membranes.  On the gulf coast i tend to be a habitual user of benedryl and often ibuprofen, too.  Yesterday my headache would NOT go away.  I drank coffee by the quart, ate "mostly harmless" things, minimized wine, rested ... did everything right, and still felt dragged out and crummy.

Decaf.  I was drinking decaf and didn't recognize it till this morning.

Should i write a rant, complaining that some coffee brands need to label a little more obviously?

[sigh]  I feel so dumb.  ;-)