Paleo Dan

Notes 1/18/2010: First, I’ve been following a low-carb, high-fat paleo/primal diet with a macronutrient ratio of 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbs for a while now. I’m sure, but haven’t checked, that includes more saturated fat than the USDA recommends in a week.

About two days before the blood draw, I ate from an all you can eat buffet. I stuck pretty close to paleo/primal foods, but I know that I got more carbs than normal and that the food was cooked in unhealthy fats. Not sure how much that would’ve skewed my results, but I’m not too worried in any case.

The nurse practitioner at the doctor’s office, though, is concerned though she is starting to think that my cholesterol numbers are due more to genetic variation than anything else… of course, she doesn’t know how I eat… I just told her that I eat “clean.”

Now some info about my numbers. Yeah, my total and LDL cholesterol numbers are up, but the numbers that matter most to me are down. For example, serum glucose is down almost 6%, my triglycerides are down over 17%, my HDL is up almost 19%, and my VLDL calc is down 20%. But, best of all, my ratio of triglycerides to HDL, which Dr. Eades considers most telling, is down over 30%!

Now, the nurse isn’t trying to push statins like she did last time, but she has requested an NMR profile be performed at my next blood test in six months.

Note: I started these posts before I started reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I’ve never been overly concerned by cholesterol numbers, but I care even less now. I will, however, continue to track my numbers. Mainly so people will be able to see what eating a high fat (50-65%) diet will do to these numbers. By the way, one of my favorite cheat snacks is one serving (4 sqaures) of a Lindt 90% cocoa “Supreme Dark” chocolate with two tablespoons of coconut oil. That is a 470 kcal snack that is 48g (85%) fat (37g of that is saturated), 14g (11%) carbs, and 5g (4%) protein. Side note, I love coconut oil. I put it on everything.

Note: Prior to my blood test in May, I had not been eating well or working out. In fact, I had been sick off and on (more on than off) since November ‘08. I’ve been paleo-esque for about a month now and trying to hold to a stricter paleo diet going forward from here. We’ll see what the numbers show…

Note 10/7/09: Supposedly C-reactive protein (CRP) is also an indicator of heart disease… at least that’s what my doctor thinks. I’ve got to wonder though. If my total cholesterol was 262 mg/dL which the AHA says is “high risk”, that must mean my risk of heart disease was elevated. If that’s the case, shouldn’t my CRP have been elevated? Oh well, I’ll track it anyway just for the fun of it. If fat, especially saturated fat, is bad, then my cholesterol should go up which should start hurting my heart and cause my CRP to elevate. We shall see.

For at least the past three years, I would get sick with a respiratory infection at some point  in October or November. Two and three years ago, it was while I was visiting family for Thanksgiving. It is seriously not fun spending Thanksgiving day tracking down an urgent care facility in a small town and then waiting over an hour in the local Walmart waiting for the prescription to be filled.

Last year, in mid-October, it took me out of the gym and lingered for two or three months until I went to the doctor for drugs. When I finally went in January 2009, as I had never been to that doctor before, they ordered blood tests. In addition to other issues, my serum 25(OH)D level was 8.3 ng/mL-i.e., seriously deficient. The doctor had me take 50,000 IUs of Vitamin D2 twice a week for 8 weeks. That got my level up to 35.3 ng/mL when I had a followup test in May.

Unfortunately, other than that 800,000 IUs and some time spent in the backyard pool over the summer, I did not supplement my Vitamin D at all until toward the end of September when I started taking 10,000 IUs of Vitamin D3. My blood test five days later showed that my 25(OH)D level had dropped back below the normal minimum of 32 ng/mL to 24.4. Much better than the 8.3 starting point, but still deficient.

After one week at 10,000 IUs, based upon a post from Dr. Kurt Harris over at PāNu (look down in the “Replacement, Not Supplementation” section), I dropped my supplementation to a normal level of 4,000 IUs daily. I remain at this level regardless of daily sun exposure, which these days in nil. However, based upon a ton of information I’ve been reading lately, I have been doubling my daily dose to 8,000 IUs when illness is nearby-i.e., when my wife or kids are sick.

My next blood test is scheduled for this coming Monday (November 2). In two weeks time, at the followup visit, I expect to see some nice improvements to my vitamin D level. Hopefully, my anti-streptolysin O level will be either reduced or, at the least, not increased… that’s the reason, you see, for the number of blood tests I’ve had recently.

Update 1/18/2010: Shortly after this post, I upped my supplementation back to 10,000 IUs for the winter. At my blood test January 18th, my 25(OH)D was up to 115 ng/mL. Woot! I’ve cut my supplementation back down to 4,000 IUs. I’ll keep it here until my next blood test in July. I can say that I’ve never felt healthier. My sinuses have been much clearer over the past few months than they have ever been.

Here are some great links to information on vitamin D:

A Compendium of Vitamin D Information There is a ton of useful information on this page. It certainly earns the “compendium” part of the title. Some of my favorite sections of the page are:

• Chronic Pain “Epidemiological studies indicate that 93% of people with chronic muscoskeletal pain are deficient in Vitamin D“

• Depression This really explains the seasonal blues for me. I had just assumed it was “cabin fever” or something mental. To know that it could be vitamin deficiency really gives me hope for future winters… bring it on!

• Vitamin D and Cancer This section really hits close to home… as a man, anything that “reduces the risk of prostate cancer” is high on my list of to-dos. And, having lost my grandmother to pancreatic cancer, knowing that “just 400 IU of Vitamin D per day reduced the risk of pancreatic cancer by 43%” gives me hope for myself and my kids.

• Vitamin D and the Immune System A couple of sentences in this section are what prompted me to write this post. “Increased incidence of respiratory infection is linked to Vitamin D deficiency. Epidemiological studies indicate that people with low levels of Vitamin D are 40% more likely to have a respiratory infection.” Alrighty then! That explains my last three years!!!

H1N1, Vitamin D3 and Innate Immunity is another post from Dr Harris over at PāNu. This post is part of the reason I double my supplementation when there is illness in the house. In short, “[i]t appears vitamin D is incredibly protective against H1N1.” This part is amazing to me: “0.73% of residents were affected, as compared to 7.5% of staff. This 10-fold difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). That is, the chance that this was a chance occurrence is one less than one in a thousand.” If you don’t want to read the post, know that residents of the long-term care facility receive daily supplementation of vitamin D based upon individual 25(OH)D levels.

Vitamin D supplements show anti-diabetes potential Dr Michael Eades posted a link to this article this morning on his twitter account DrEades. I promptly posted it to my Facebook page before I decided to write this post. In short, the article reports that a randomized, controlled trial has shown that vitamin D improves both insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance, two common risk factors for diabetes. Awesome!

Vitamin D Is DINOMIT Against Cancer is a post from Tom Naughton that links to a video from the UCSD School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center titled “How Vitamin D Reduces Incidence of Cancer: DINOMIT Model.” I would link directly to the video, but you really need to start reading Tom’s stuff anyway so go… after you finish here! Also, you need to watch Tom’s documentary film Fat Head.

The Miracle of Vitamin D over at the Weston A. Price Foundation site. This page has a lot of information and a ton of references to follow… 82 of them!

That should get you started on your own research.

Note: I reckon this is what you call a plateau… I haven’t changed weight more than +/- 3 lbs in over a month. I’ve cut my carbs to try and jump start some fat burning (I’ve been eating too much fruit and crutch foods such as primal muffins, etc). Once it’s started, that should be enough motivation to really control my carbs and keep to a stricter paleo diet.

Just took some measurements of my waist, arm, chest and thigh to compare against my last measurements from August 18, 2009.

I’ve dropped almost 5 inches from my waist and almost 3 inches from my chest. My thigh put on about half an inch, but I’d expect that with the gains I’ve made on my squats and deadlifts and with the running I’ve done. My bicep measurement dropped 1.5 inches, but I had a really hard time measuring it the first time with the plain ol’ sewing tape I used… I upgraded to a MyoTape this time for one handed use.

Note: I started these posts before I started reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I’ve never been overly concerned by cholesterol numbers, but I care even less now. I will, however, continue to track my numbers. Mainly so people will be able to see what eating a high fat (50-65%) diet will do to these numbers. By the way, one of my favorite cheat snacks is one serving (4 sqaures) of a Lindt 90% cocoa “Supreme Dark” chocolate with two tablespoons of coconut oil. That is a 470 kcal snack that is 48g (85%) fat (37g of that is saturated), 14g (11%) carbs, and 5g (4%) protein. Side note, I love coconut oil. I put it on everything.

Note: Prior to my blood test in May, I had not been eating well or working out. In fact, I had been sick off and on (more on than off) since November ‘08. I’ve been paleo-esque for about a month now and trying to hold to a stricter paleo diet going forward from here. We’ll see what the numbers show…

Note 10/7/09: Supposedly C-reactive protein (CRP) is also an indicator of heart disease… at least that’s what my doctor thinks. I’ve got to wonder though. If my total cholesterol was 262 mg/dL which the AHA says is “high risk”, that must mean my risk of heart disease was elevated. If that’s the case, shouldn’t my CRP have been elevated? Oh well, I’ll track it anyway just for the fun of it. If fat, especially saturated fat, is bad, then my cholesterol should go up which should start hurting my heart and cause my CRP to elevate. We shall see.