Tarmanders Auto-Immune Log

Tarmander

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Hi everyone,

I decided to start a log to...well...log my thoughts on the journey I am taking with Ray Peat's ideas and some of the health related things I am discovering. People on this forum seem open minded and willing to try new things, so it is my hope that someone will chime in with that idea that breaks the whole thing open, so to speak.

First some background:

I am a type 1 diabetic, I was diagnosed and put on insulin when I was 12 years old, just about 16 years ago. When I was diagnosed I was consumed with the idea of finding ways to manage it, and hopefully one day cure it. I am of the opinion that the genesis and cure for type 1 are right in front of our faces. With a little looking, someone may stumble on something that makes people later slap their foreheads and exclaim "how did we not see this!"

After I was diagnosed I went to a kids camp for diabetics like myself. I have continued to go back to that camp since then, transitioning into being a counselor for young children once a year. I am not the only DC (diabetic counselor), there are perhaps 60 others who I have become friends with. This has given me an opportunity to look at other diabetics and see some similarities between them. Here are some observations I have noticed:

•Clinically, it has been shown that type 1 diabetics suffer a higher rate of depression. I believe the number is about 12%. I have personally experienced this and believe it is because you can never have perfect control of your blood sugar, it will cycle up and down. When it goes down, it causes a spike in stress hormones to attempt to stabilize the blood sugar. This leads to anxiety, adrenaline, being on edge, etc. When you blood sugar goes high, levels of BDNF in the brain fall, you get brain fog, fatigue, etc. So basically most diabetics bounce back and forth between anxiety and depression each day, and there is not much you can do about it except deal the best you can. Many, are into chronic distraction, or drinking, or using tobacco, or anything to take the edge off. Personally I do not drink or smoke.

•Many type 1s tend to have a baby face, and a big booty. They have chubby cheeks and extra fat on their butts, even if they tend to be skinny. They also are prone to stretch marks and have problems building muscle. It is not that they can't be muscular, they can, but it is a lot of work. I have some theories on why this is that I will go into later.

•Of 200+ type 1s I have personally met, not one of them is bald or balding. I have no idea why this is, but even the most stressed out among us, who smokes, drinks, and have all their joints falling apart, still have a full head of hair. Maybe it is selection bias I don't know. Even the older ones are only losing a bit of hair, no premature male pattern baldness.

I have other ideas, but I don't want to make this too long.

In 2012 I was working at a health food store, walking around all day, and taking lots of supplements. I was skinny, about 145 pounds. I have included a picture to give you an idea.

IMG_0112 (1).JPG

At the time, I was on low amounts of insulin, and most would have considered me pretty healthy. I ate large amounts of vegetables, meat, grains, and butter. However I was going through hell. I could barely sleep a couple hours at a time. I would usually wake up several times per night and stare at the ceiling. If I got four hours sleep straight it was a miracle. I had very low amounts of energy. I did not have any friends because I never went out and lived with my parents. I sat around and read or did other low energy things. Sometimes it was hard to even talk to people. I did not know it at the time as an energy thing, I thought it was just who I was. Right around that time I stopped swimming, because if I swam or did any exercise, I would literally not be able to sleep at all. I felt like I had a fist in my brain clenched so tight I could barely do anything.

I tried Dr. Wilson's hair mineral analysis and the accompanied diet for a couple years with a little bit of success. But at the end I was still pretty depressed, anxious, and my energy levels were always low unless I was stressed out.

Fast forward to the end of 2014 and my reading of Matt Stone's book Diet Recovery. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. My whole life at that point was focused on denying myself the foods I wanted because they weren't healthy. I then read Gwen's writing over at Youreatopia and realized that much of my behavior was similar to someone with an eating disorder. All I thought about was food, and supplements, and trying this or that. I was obsessed with the health of something. I believe she calls it orthorexia, or being obsessed with the healthiness of something or other. It is all just another manifestation of being threatened by food.

I had been reading Peat at the time for about six months, so I decided to take the training wheels off and go for it. I ate whatever I wanted. I limited PUFA, that was about it, but if I wanted it, like a frozen pizza, I would find the one with the least pufa and eat it anyways. I ate a lot. Things I had said I would never eat...potatoes, ice cream, pizza, juice (oh lawdy!), milk. I was constantly bloated and yet I was still hungry. I went through an ice cream phase where I ate maybe two pints of ice cream per day for a few months. If I was hungry, I ate it. People say you can get addicted to sugar. It is bull****. After two pints of ice cream, with juice every day, you do not want any more sugar.

It was probably one of the greatest times in my life. I slept like a baby. I had abundant energy. I was social, I went out on dates, I had a personality and laughed. My relationships with my parents improved and I moved out. I got a better job. It was fantastic. I had confidence, I could talk with people, I did not have anxiety or fear of social situations. Life was good.

I was gaining weight at a good clip however. Some people were noticing and mentioning it, although with how I felt I did not really care. My philosophy was always, if I was outgoing and enjoying life more, then gaining weight was not a problem. If I was shuttered in my house, depressed, lazy, then gaining weight was probably a problem.

Don't worry, I am almost done here. After about six months of this, the honeymoon wore off so to speak. I did not find much interest in new foods. I had eaten to excess everything I had restricted. Pizza is great, but I do not feel much like eating it anymore, same with ice cream. I might eat a pint three or four times a month now. I settled more into the milk and OJ life style because those still taste good for some reason; I don't get sick of them (yet!). I also eat meat, like lamb and chicken, as well as some rice, quinoa, and oats here and there. I can't do the liquid diet fully, I have to have a couple solid meals a day. I don't do a ton of veggies either.

Here is a picture of me about two months ago in June around 195 lbs.

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Now onto why I am doing this log. Something popped into my head the other night, and that was that some type 1s seems to be suffering from a light form of Cushings syndrome. Remember the baby faces and stretch marks? Well it just so happens that those with full blown Cushings have very similar symptoms. I have them listed here (source http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20032115):

•Weight gain and fatty tissue deposits, particularly around the midsection and upper back, in the face (moon face), and between the shoulders (buffalo hump)
•Pink or purple stretch marks (striae) on the skin of the abdomen, thighs, breasts and arms

•Thinning, fragile skin that bruises easily
•Slow healing of cuts, insect bites and infections
•Acne


Women with Cushing syndrome may experience:
•Thicker or more visible body and facial hair (hirsutism)
•Irregular or absent menstrual periods

Men with Cushing syndrome may experience:
•Decreased libido
•Decreased fertility
•Erectile dysfunction

Other signs and symptoms include:
•Fatigue
•Muscle weakness
•Depression, anxiety and irritability
•Loss of emotional control
•Cognitive difficulties

•New or worsened high blood pressure
•Glucose intolerance that may lead to diabetes
•Headache
•Bone loss, leading to fractures over time

The ones I have experienced I have put into bold. They are not super symptomatic, but they are there from time to time. I read somewhere, and it stuck in my mind, that cortisol can both increase fat gain, as well as fat loss, depending on what it is paired with. When combined with epinephrine and norepinephrine, you lose weight, you get skinny, etc. My theory is that when I was super skinny but unhealthy, I was basically riding the adrenaline and cortisol wave to unhappiness. When cortisol combines with insulin, the fat packs on. Since eating more, my use of insulin has predictably sky rocketed. My theory is that this is phase I am now in.

However this leads me to several questions. If my observations about cushings, and type 1s in general are true, the main underlying pathology seems to be cortisol. Is the high cortisol caused by type 1 diabetes? Having blood sugar go up and down constantly is definitely stressful and could cause cortisol release.

Or is the diabetes caused by the elevated cortisol? Meaning, could there be some other factor that increased cortisol when I was 12 years old to a level that induced autoimmune type 1 some how? Also, why are none of the type 1s balding?

I don't know, but I will be running experiments. I have been experimenting with MB, estroban, b6, zinc, l-theanine, niacinamide. I have not tried thyroid, aspirin, and do not like how I feel on caffeine. I will update this with any other thoughts I get overtime.

Hopefully this can help me organize, and get a rational explanation for the pathology. Anything anyone knows about insulin's interaction with cortisol, cortisol and auto immune disorders, and type 1 diabetes in general would be helpful.
 
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Tarmander

Tarmander

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Danny Roddy had a great quote on his Facebook today:

Margueles, D.L. The obesity of middle age: a common variety of Cushing’s syndrome due to a chronic increase in adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) and beta­endorphin activity. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1979;116:279­90. “The common obesity of middle age presents a set of features that strongly resembles the cardinal symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome: obesity of the face (moon face), upper back (buffalo hump) and trunk (pot belly) accompanied by signs of protein­wasting.” “Thus, a mild version of Cushing’s syndrome may be part of the normal aging process. A more intense version of this process may occur in overweight adults. Excess and chronic activity of two pituitary hormones may contribute to this adiposity.”

This is exactly the kind of things that is helping me connect some dots with my new body post Peating. It is kind of odd how many people who begin to Peat gain weight in their mid section and have other Cushing's symptoms. This would indicate aging. I am one of those, which begs the question, when I was restricting calories, living off Adrenaline, and generally unhappy, was I healthier? I did not feel healthier, I felt like I was in hell. Perhaps that diet and lifestyle were designed to hide aging. Things need to come out before they can be dealt with.

I have this feeling that when someone gains weight on the peat diet, or an unrestricted caloric diet, it is there to enable a faster metabolism. I remember before I found Peat I could not tolerate any caffeine. Sugar would make me feel horrible. Anything that sped up my metabolism felt like my body was literally ripping itself apart. But now, being heavier and eating more, I can handle all kinds of things that increase metabolism.

My theory at the moment is that my body is showing the effects of many many years of living off Cortisol, to the point where I believe it is dysregulated, and no matter how much I eat or breathe or whatever, it remains high. Recently I have been experimenting with small amounts of B6 P5P. I have a 17mg sublingual and I take little bites off of it throughout the day. I probably go through a sublingual in two days, so each day I am getting between 7-10mg of B6 P5P.

I have noticed some amazing gains from it. I have been sleeping better, I feel stronger, I feel more willing to go out and do things. My temps seem higher, although it will take awhile to get more data on that. I even hooked up with a girl for the first time in awhile. However I also feel angrier which is a bit odd. It is tough to explain but it almost feels ego enhancing. This kind of loops into a feeling I have had for awhile that some of my behavior in the past was subconsciously trying to lower my health so that my ego was less pronounced and easier to deal with. Sometimes the sicker you are, the more easy it is to surrender and be open. Not always.

These are the other supplements I am taking at the moment:
•3 drops of Estroban
•5-10 drops of Energin
•1 drop MB
•BCAAs and Gelatin/Collagen twice per day.
•L-theanine and Zinc before bed for sleep.
•Immune Health Basics Beta Glucan.
 
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Do you believe in growing back beta cells?
 
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Tarmander

Tarmander

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Such_Saturation said:
Do you believe in growing back beta cells?


No idea. I have heard of it happening to people, but the be honest I have never seen a really reliable case, especially to a type 1 who has been taking insulin for awhile. I remember reading about one girl who was recently diagnosed and went on a paleo diet and was able to get off insulin. However it only lasted for about a year while the honeymoon period was going on, and she had to get on insulin eventually.
 
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Tarmander said:
Such_Saturation said:
Do you believe in growing back beta cells?


No idea. I have heard of it happening to people, but the be honest I have never seen a really reliable case, especially to a type 1 who has been taking insulin for awhile. I remember reading about one girl who was recently diagnosed and went on a paleo diet and was able to get off insulin. However it only lasted for about a year while the honeymoon period was going on, and she had to get on insulin eventually.

Do you need to adapt the dose a lot? What kind of ears do diabetics have? Are they all dried up and do they have a line across their lobe?
 
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Tarmander

Tarmander

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Such_Saturation said:
Tarmander said:
Such_Saturation said:
Do you believe in growing back beta cells?


No idea. I have heard of it happening to people, but the be honest I have never seen a really reliable case, especially to a type 1 who has been taking insulin for awhile. I remember reading about one girl who was recently diagnosed and went on a paleo diet and was able to get off insulin. However it only lasted for about a year while the honeymoon period was going on, and she had to get on insulin eventually.

Do you need to adapt the dose a lot? What kind of ears do diabetics have? Are they all dried up and do they have a line across their lobe?

The dose of Insulin? Yeah it is a constant balancing act. It is never perfect. How relaxed are you? Did you get a little more exercise then usual? How much sleep did you get? Did you eat protein before or after carbs at breakfast? You can eat the same thing every day, but the way you combine it changes the insulin you take. How do you feel today verse yesterday? All these things can affect your blood sugar and eventually you get to the point where blood sugar "control" is just a hunch. You just feel like you might need a bit more, or a bit less, then last meal, or whatnot.

As far as ears go, here is mine, to be honest I have not paid much attention to ears. Does not seem super dry or anything. I swab them every couple days and get some wax out.
 

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DaveFoster

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Tarmander said:
I am of the opinion that the genesis and cure for type 1 are right in front of our faces. With a little looking, someone may stumble on something that makes people later slap their foreheads and exclaim "how did we not see this!"

Hopefully this can help me organize, and get a rational explanation for the pathology. Anything anyone knows about insulin's interaction with cortisol, cortisol and auto immune disorders, and type 1 diabetes in general would be helpful.

I share your opinion of Type 1. It just seems odd that a life-threatening condition appears out of nowhere at a young age, and without pharmaceutical intervention, it would result in genetic death, so the cause may be obvious, but I'm dipping into a naturalist fallacy here.

As far as the interactions of cortisol with insulin, insulin inhibits cortisol formation, as insulin is responsible for storing glucose, while cortisol utilizes glucose. Cortisol also spares certain electrolytes, such as sodium.

Doctors diagnose type 1 diabetes far more often in developed countries than underdeveloped countries, and this is more likely due to a more advanced healthcare system rather than the foods themselves.

Adult diagnoses vary widely across the world, but the countries with the highest concentrations of type 1 diabetics seem to be located in the Middle-East and South Asia.
 
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Tarmander

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DaveFoster said:
Tarmander said:
I am of the opinion that the genesis and cure for type 1 are right in front of our faces. With a little looking, someone may stumble on something that makes people later slap their foreheads and exclaim "how did we not see this!"

Hopefully this can help me organize, and get a rational explanation for the pathology. Anything anyone knows about insulin's interaction with cortisol, cortisol and auto immune disorders, and type 1 diabetes in general would be helpful.

I share your opinion of Type 1. It just seems odd that a life-threatening condition appears out of nowhere at a young age, and without pharmaceutical intervention, it would result in genetic death, so the cause may be obvious, but I'm dipping into a naturalist fallacy here.

As far as the interactions of cortisol with insulin, insulin inhibits cortisol formation, as insulin is responsible for storing glucose, while cortisol utilizes glucose. Cortisol also spares certain electrolytes, such as sodium.

Doctors diagnose type 1 diabetes far more often in developed countries than underdeveloped countries, and this is more likely due to a more advanced healthcare system rather than the foods themselves.

Adult diagnoses vary widely across the world, but the countries with the highest concentrations of type 1 diabetics seem to be located in the Middle-East and South Asia.

Thank you for the links Dave. Do you have any reference to insulin inhibiting cortisol? My understanding is that you could have both in your system at the same time, especially in situations with low blood sugar. It would be great if I could just shoot up insulin and have a cortisol lowering effect but I have not noticed this.
 

tara

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Hi Tarmander,
Thanks for the story.
Out of curiosity, if you feel like telling, how was your type 1 diabetes discovered/diagnosed?

I guess you've seen Peat's mention of brewers yeast extract for diabetes? Don't know whether it can be as useful for T1 as T2.
 
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Tarmander

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tara said:
Hi Tarmander,
Thanks for the story.
Out of curiosity, if you feel like telling, how was your type 1 diabetes discovered/diagnosed?

I guess you've seen Peat's mention of brewers yeast extract for diabetes? Don't know whether it can be as useful for T1 as T2.

I have tried Brewers yeast before, I did not notice much of anything but I did not really do a regiment or anything on it. I tried a lot of things in my health food store days and if it didn't affect anything noticeably I would usually move on.

When I was 12 I went to a boy scout camp, and when I came back my parents noticed that I was getting skinnier. They thought I had just exercised a lot. I was always a little over weight as a child so most people said it was a good thing. However I was also starting to pee a lot, and get very thirsty. I would drink gallons of water and have to pee every 15 minutes or so. I also continued to lose weight. I could not sleep more then 45 minutes at a time before getting up to pee.

They thought it might be a urinary tract infection or something, but my grandma said she had read something about diabetes doing this. So I went to the doctor, and it happen just how Peat says it happens. They test your blood sugar, see that your blood sugar is high, and pretty much say you are diabetic. I think they also ran a A1C, I am not sure. I took my first shot then and there and drove over to the hospital to get the training in carb counting and all that jazz.
 
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But then how would you know that it isn't type 2?
 

Giraffe

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Tarmander said:
I am of the opinion that the genesis and cure for type 1 are right in front of our faces. With a little looking, someone may stumble on something that makes people later slap their foreheads and exclaim "how did we not see this!"
In my opinion Ray Peat's answers are as simple as the ones you suspect must exist: Stress, toxins (PUFA!), inflammation, a virus is plausible...

The last time I have been in a camp... lack of sleep, lots of physical exercise no matter how hot it was, limited food choices. About on fifth of the 11- and 12-year-old boys got sick... exhaustian. What was your camp like?

Have you listened to the audio clips schultz has loaded up? viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7156&start=30

When Peat's father cured his diabetes he ate brewer's yeast as only food for several weeks.
 
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Tarmander

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Giraffe said:
Tarmander said:
I am of the opinion that the genesis and cure for type 1 are right in front of our faces. With a little looking, someone may stumble on something that makes people later slap their foreheads and exclaim "how did we not see this!"
In my opinion Ray Peat's answers are as simple as the ones you suspect must exist: Stress, toxins (PUFA!), inflammation, a virus is plausible...

The last time I have been in a camp... lack of sleep, lots of physical exercise no matter how hot it was, limited food choices. About on fifth of the 11- and 12-year-old boys got sick... exhaustian. What was your camp like?

Have you listened to the audio clips schultz has loaded up? viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7156&start=30

When Peat's father cured his diabetes he ate brewer's yeast as only food for several weeks.

The virus thing has been around for quite awhile. There is also the milk cause, and possibly the Hep B vaccine cause. I am sure stress also had a role. I don't know if anyone has looked at summer camp as a cause, but hey maybe there is a correlation there. I guess my issue with these is that they are generally conjectures. What virus? Why is Finland so high in type 1? They drink a lot of milk, but is it really the milk, or is that just correlation? Why don't all stressed kids get type 1?

Ray Peat's story of his father curing his diabetes with Brewer's yeast is basically the prototype of the n=1 "I cured diabetes, look it aint hard" stories. I have had people tell me that if I drank my own urine for 2 years, I would be cured, or if I fasted and took huge amounts of protolytic enzymes (I actually tried that one), or if I went on a rice water fast, or drank copious amounts of grapefruit juice. The common theme of these n=1 stories always being that it is super stressful to go through, you never really fully committed, and if you had just taken MORE it would have worked.

If Peat had more then the one story, if his dad had not used it right after being diagnosed, and had treated multiple people with this method, AND there were people here who could attest to it working, I may give it a shot. But as far as I have seen, I am the only type 1 out here experimenting, and from my experience, the "eat copious amounts of one thing," has not worked for me yet.

That was a cool link you gave, great little sound bites.
 

Giraffe

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I think it is seldom one stressor alone that causes a disease; it happens when someone is subjected to more stress (lack of sleep, lack of sun, PUFA, viruses ...) than he can handle. Most of Ray Peat's explanations base on that idea.

I agree that it is stressful to eat just one type of food. And that's for sure... brewer's yeast tastes disgusting. Still brewer's yeast might serve as a guide on how to design your own experiments. I see:

- most B vitamins: well above RDI (highest B1 and B9)
- protein / carbs / fat: approx. 0.65 / 0.25 / 0.10 (maybe more carbs would be better if it's high in fructose?)
- phosphor: high (?!)
- sugar: 50% fructose
- starch: high (?!)
- amino acid profile: slightly better than average (I looked at calf's liver, milk, egg, shrimp and potato.)

Food for thought:

"Insulin itself has been found to account for only about 8% of the "insulin-like activity" of the blood, ..." http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glycemia.shtml
Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes seem to have a lot in common.
Can you lower insulin consumption with many small meals?

One thing I came across when entering "haidut diabetes" in the seach box http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6373464. There is more interesting stuff coming up.

Not from Ray Peat forum ... "The majority of patients with long-duration type 1 diabetes are insulin microsecretors and have functioning beta cells" http://link.springer.com/article/10.100 ... 013-3067-x

Tarmander said:
Why is Finland so high in type 1? They drink a lot of milk, but is it really the milk, or is that just correlation?
Long, long winter nights?

Tarmander said:
Why don't all stressed kids get type 1?
Prenatal/early childhood imprining? If someone was exposed to stress hormones very early, he is programmed to enter stress mode more easily. (This is how I understood Ray Peat. I don't remember the wording.) ... just one possible answer...
 
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Tarmander

Tarmander

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Giraffe said:
I agree that it is stressful to eat just one type of food. And that's for sure... brewer's yeast tastes disgusting. Still brewer's yeast might serve as a guide on how to design your own experiments. I see:

- most B vitamins: well above RDI (highest B1 and B9)
- protein / carbs / fat: approx. 0.65 / 0.25 / 0.10 (maybe more carbs would be better if it's high in fructose?)
- phosphor: high (?!)
- sugar: 50% fructose
- starch: high (?!)
- amino acid profile: slightly better than average (I looked at calf's liver, milk, egg, shrimp and potato.)

This is actually a very good idea. B Vitamins seem to be the place to experiment. I have tried high doses of B1 before without much seeming benefit. I will keep tooling around. When I heard Ray Peat's story about his Dad, I was surprised he did not die. He lost weight down to 100 lbs, for a man (I am assuming), and then went on an all Brewers Yeast diet? That sounds just awful. He must have had to eat almost 2 lbs of Brewers Yeast a day just to get enough calories.

Giraffe said:
Food for thought:

"Insulin itself has been found to account for only about 8% of the "insulin-like activity" of the blood, ..." http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glycemia.shtml
Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes seem to have a lot in common.
Can you lower insulin consumption with many small meals?

I can lower insulin consumption in many ways. I used to do it by just eating less food. The issue is sacrificing health to lower insulin usage. Most of what lowers insulin in a healthy way, I do...such as going to bed early and waking up early which lowers my insulin usage by about 5%.

Eating many small meals as well keeps blood sugar more stable. I generally am just always eating instead of having several big meals.

Also, less orgasm tends to give me more energy, hence more activity, hence less insulin.

Lots of little things like that I do to keep it lower, but I am not sure that simply less insulin use is causationally healthy. Meaning, high amounts of insulin use may occur in metabolically damaged people, however the metabolic damage may not be caused by high amounts of insulin. Some things I do seem healthy and lower the amount of insulin I use, but the insulin usage being high or low does not seem to be healthy or unhealthy.

Giraffe said:
Not from Ray Peat forum ... "The majority of patients with long-duration type 1 diabetes are insulin microsecretors and have functioning beta cells" http://link.springer.com/article/10.100 ... 013-3067-x

VERY neat. Thank you for linking this. Gives me something to think about
 

tara

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I too wonder how they distinguished Type 1 from Type 2.

I think Peat talked about brewers yeast being used more widely than just his dad, and his dad got the idea from reading about it as a potentially successful treatment. Peat recommends drinking a hot water extract of brewers yeast, not eating the whole powder. So you would get most of the water-soluble B vits, some of the potassium etc, but hopefully leave most of the estrogens behind in the settled solids.
Supplementing B vitamins may be helpful in itself.

I think it may be possible to get improvements in pancreatic beta cell function, and I have read stories (RBTI) of people recovering to the point of no longer requiring insulin supplements, but I gather it is not a straight forward matter, it has risks, and you really need people around who know what they are doing. I gather that insulin can accumulate in tissue, and under some conditions that can occur during recovery, a lot can be released at once, with potentially dangerous consequences if not addressed immediately and correctly.

I think it's quite reasonable to simply accept the ongoing insulin supplementation, and make it all work as well as you can. Sounds like you have a good sense of what you need with this.
Some of the risks with insulin supplementation seem to arise for people who control their blood sugars too vigorously, and let it get too low too much.
 
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Tarmander

Tarmander

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tara said:
I too wonder how they distinguished Type 1 from Type 2.

Hi Tara, thanks for your response. From my experience, the biggest difference between type 1 and type 2 in day to day things is that for type 1s, immune suppressing activities usually lower blood sugar. I do not think things that suppress immune system do much for type 2s, but for type 1s, you can have a serious drop in glucose.

I did an experiment a few years ago where I chugged some fish oil down, probably at least a couple table spoons. My blood sugar dropped like a rock. It was pretty sweet. At the time I did not know the dangers of fish oil, but some how even though I had a "positive" effect, I did not start taking fish oil. Thank goodness.

Quick Update:

I have been experimenting with B6 on the assumption that I am experiencing continually raised cortisol levels. I have been taking a little bite out of a 17mg tablet and absorbing it sublingually.

At first it was amazing. I would get a little panic when I first took it, but then that would wear off and I would be left with a cool and collected state. Very low stress. Not only that, but my blood sugar, even if it was rising, would usually level off and start dropping right away. I have a dexcom monitor, which is a little sensor that hooks into you. I wear it all the time and it gives me my blood glucose every 5 minutes, so I have a little chart I can look at throughout the day and see how supplements effect me.

I started taking more and more B6. It was really keeping my blood sugar stable, however I also started to feel a bit strung out. I started getting deeper dark circles under my eyes and not sleeping so great. I believe what happens is that when the cortisol leaves your system, your body needs something immediately to keep your blood sugar up, and so raises adrenaline. The more B6 I took, the more adrenaline I felt. So I backed off, I am only taking like 1-2 mg a day now where I was taking like 10mg there for awhile. Definitely too much of a good thing!

I also tried 200mg of pregnenolone. I read Haidut's stuff about it lowering stress. It did a couple things I noticed. First, it dropped my blood sugar pretty nicely for the first hour or so. I raised my blood sugar up a bit in anticipation of trying the pregnenolone in case it really dropped fast. I have included a snap of the dexcom. I took the dose at 10am and had that nice drop. It was not ground breakingly impressive, but it was something. I think there was very little insulin on-board at that time, maybe a little.



I also noticed higher energy in my head that made it a bit hard to concentrate. That could be blood sugar lowering temporarily in my brain. I have noticed that sometimes localized blood sugar is different then whole body blood sugar and it can take 15-30 minutes for some places to "catch up" so to speak.

I felt a bit more relaxed on it, but not catatonic like some people report. All in all it was not that strong of a supplement for me. I may try it again in the future, but I am going to wait for awhile.

Going forward I am going to continue with the b6 and the few other things I am taking. I do not have a great idea of where I want to experiment going forward here. I am open to ideas. I will post another update when I have further plans.
 

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