Terrible Blood Results: Very Low Energy And Weak Immunity

[yerrag]

This is not to be confused with blood being thick.

Blood being thick has to do more with viscosity that is influenced by rheological factors such as the many components in blood agglomerating. If you want to check blood thickness, you could check your serum ESR.

I have to explain this better:

Pumpkin soup - add water to double the volume. If pumpkin is red blood cell, the undiluted soup would be considered dehydrated vs. the diluted soup. If you measure the pb (pumpkin bits/ml), the undiluted soup would be twice that of the diluted soup. Certainly, undiluted soup would be thicker, but this isn't the 'thick' we're talking about when we talk about blood thickness. We're talking about viscosity, or the resistance to flow.

If you add a starch thickener to the pumpkin soup, to make it have more body by gelling it, the result would be a soup that is "thicker"in the sense that we would call blood "thick." In blood, as well as in industrial colloidal mixtures, a term called zeta potential is used to describe this resistance to flow. Search the zeta potential thread to get a better understanding of this.

 

[Runenight201]

Yes, that helps a lot. Fruit and vegetables and meat mostly for potassium. Well-cooked but mushy green leaves for magnesium and calcium. And enjoying life by not trying to eat bland food that isn't salty enough.

Even so, I'm finding my serum albumin stores hard to build up. I'm pretty sure my liver's making enough albumin, it's just that my albumin is being used up as fast as I'm making them, so I have difficulty building up blood volume.

mmmm well I just had some delicious soup that seems to have warmed up my bones tremendously :) chickpea soup with yucca, tomatoes, onions, spinach, cilantro, and bouillon seasoning... talk about hydrating! I found myself intuitively eating between the broth and the starchier plants, and for every bite of the yucca or chickpea, I would lap in heaps of the broth. Oh how I love thee warmth... Perhaps some tequila to seal the deal!

 

[Vadim]

I would not say that is thick blood by what I normally understand as thick blood.

I have high rbc, hgb, and hct. I would call myself dehydrated, for lack of plasma in my blood, due to osmolar reasons - low amount of sodium (total, not the serum concentration) in plasma. And what makes my sodium low is because there's not enough albumin (total albumin, not serum albumin concentration) in my plasma. Low sodium attract less water, and this makes my blood volume lower than what should be. With less water, I am considered dehydrated, technically. Drinking more water won't help because the water just leaves my blood, because there's not enough sodium to attract it. And taking more sodium doesn't help, because there's not enough albumin to hold on to the sodium.

This is not to be confused with blood being thick.

Blood being thick has to do more with viscosity that is influenced by rheological factors such as the many components in blood agglomerating. If you want to check blood thickness, you could check your serum ESR.

Ok let's make it clear here about hematocrit and thick blood. Blood viscosity strongly depends on hematocrit. So no matter what is the cause of increased hematocrit (say dehydration), blood viscosity will also increase, and will do so in a non-linear fashion. With normal Hct circa 41-44 pct your blood viscosity will be around 4 and if your Hct increases 50 pct to 60, the viscosity will jump 100 pct to around 8. So quite a dependence, right? То further complicate the picture, human blood, unlike pumpkin soup, has a coagulation system. And clotting by itself can add to a high viscosity problem. If clotting mechanisms are stimulated in the blood (say via vit K supplementing), platelet aggregation and interactions with plasma proteins could occur. This leads to entrapment of red cells and clot formation, which dramatically increases blood viscosity.
Again, the only reason I decided to write in this thread is that I just wanted to draw the attention of the author to a relatively high level of his red blood numbers. Hct at 50 pct is not a big deal at first sight, but look through researches and you will find that with
hematocrit even at 47 you will have a pronounced increase in CVD risks: a 1.5-fold increased risk of total venous thromboembolism (95% CI: 1.08–2.21) and a 2.4-fold increased risk of unprovoked venous thromboembolism (95% CI: 1.36–4.15) compared to men whose hematocrit was in the lower 40th percentile.

 

[yerrag]

unlike pumpkin soup, has a coagulation system.

look here. the pumpkin soup obviously has no coagulation system. it's that obvious. you just stated the obvious, in case you don't know what a metaphor is. it's a poetic device to bring home a point that people can relate to more easily. And about the coagulation system, if you want to know how much coagulated the blood is, a better way is to look at serum ESR. sure, as I already stated, hct (and rbc, and hgb as well) - the higher it is, indicates less plasma content, and certainly will be more viscous, but if you want to look at viscosity, or thickness, there is another metric that gives you a better indication of it. and it's the zeta potential of the blood that has more to do with viscosity than the hct.

why not ask the author (or op) to test his serum ESR instead of raising concerns that are peripheral when you can verify the concern with metrics that are more central to your concern about blood thickness?

 

[tara]

Glucose in serum: 73 mg/dl. Range: 74-106 (I think it is that low because of the blood drawing process itself.)

Yes, I almost fainted after the blood was drawn. Chances are my blood sugar got even below 70. The nurse then offered me water. Fortunately I had some OJ on me, which made feel like myself again after a few minutes. It was a rather large amount of blood, and I had this phenomenon before. But no doubt, low blood sugar is an energy killer.

+1
Are you eating enough overall (how much?) and enough meals int eh day to maintain reasonable stable bolood sugar? Can you tell when it's flaggeing, or can you measure now and then?
Did you have more or less energy when you were eating a little more (sat.) fat?
It looks as though you have a very restrictive diet, so it's possible that's causing trouble in itself?

 

[milkboi]

+1
Are you eating enough overall (how much?) and enough meals int eh day to maintain reasonable stable bolood sugar? Can you tell when it's flaggeing, or can you measure now and then?
Did you have more or less energy when you were eating a little more (sat.) fat?
It looks as though you have a very restrictive diet, so it's possible that's causing trouble in itself?

Yes, I'm gonna start measuring my blood sugar levels soon. I accidentally only ordered the strips without the device, so I can't do it right now.

I think fat doesn't really have any impact on my energy. Sometimes it can even really knock me out (in a positive way, like a sleeping pill). So I guess it can help lowering the stress response. But I don't know for sure, will need to test it in the future tho.

Right now I'm doing a very low PUFA diet (skim milk, date syrup, coffee, orange juice), but with 30g fat of HCO and stearic acid, so I'm still getting some good saturated fatty acids. So that's basically the definition of a restricted diet. But I am doing pretty well on it (actually I still feel like ***t in a lot of ways, but "well" compared to my usual low performing state), digestion is really good. Fiber and starch is just really tricky for me. I have one cheat day on Sunday and ate sweet potatoes and steak, and those freakin sweet potato fibers seemed to sit in my gut for more than a day. No good.
I listen to my body, and give it the calories that it needs, while also hopefully moving slowly to a leaner and more PUFA depleted body.

 

[milkboi]

My doctor suggested that I should do an "adrenal burnout test" besides the above blood tests. Sounds like BS to me, but what do I know... Is it?

 

[tara]

I listen to my body, and give it the calories that it needs, while also hopefully moving slowly to a leaner and more PUFA depleted body.

Do you have an idea of how many calories you are eating on average per day?
If those foods work well for you, that's good, though it doesn't sound as though you are able to deriving adequate energy from them at this stage. Have you checked that it covers basic minimum micros? (Personally, I think I'd feel pretty sick and low energy on the diet you describe, but that's me.)

 

[Vadim]

My doctor suggested that I should do an "adrenal burnout test" besides the above blood tests. Sounds like BS to me, but what do I know... Is it?

Well, your relatively thick blood and borderline hyponatremia plus hypoglycemia def pointing to a possible fluids insufficiency.
So it makes sense for you to check for possible ACTH deficiency there (ACTH is a pituitary gland hormone that regulates your adrenals. Lack of adrenal hormones, primary aldosterone, causes salt and water imbalances). So I would check ACTH, cortisol, aldosterone/renin. If ACTH deficiency confirmed, would explain many of your complaints.

 

[milkboi]

Do you have an idea of how many calories you are eating on average per day?
If those foods work well for you, that's good, though it doesn't sound as though you are able to deriving adequate energy from them at this stage. Have you checked that it covers basic minimum micros? (Personally, I think I'd feel pretty sick and low energy on the diet you describe, but that's me.)

I‘m getting around 2500-3000 calories daily. Before I was getting close to 4000, didn‘t make a difference in energy levels. If digestion is good, and calories are high enough not to cause low blood sugar (felt, not measured), diet modifications don‘t seem to make that much of a difference to my symptoms.

I‘m getting plenty of micronutrients. And yes, this diet ain‘t that fun (someone I told about it said it sounds like astronaut food lol, and he is right), but I‘m trying to loose some fat and deplete PUFA, and I‘m tolerating it fine so far.

 

[milkboi]

Well, your relatively thick blood and borderline hyponatremia plus hypoglycemia def pointing to a possible fluids insufficiency.
So it makes sense for you to check for possible ACTH deficiency there (ACTH is a pituitary gland hormone that regulates your adrenals. Lack of adrenal hormones, primary aldosterone, causes salt and water imbalances). So I would check ACTH, cortisol, aldosterone/renin. If ACTH deficiency confirmed, would explain many of your complaints.

Right, thank you. Will do the testing.

 

[milkboi]

Okay quick update on what I‘m doing right now to fix my health problems.

1. Minocycline 50mg 1x-2x daily -> hopefully fixing underlying low grade chronic infection. Will keep this up for 21 days.
Should I add in herbal antibiotics to make the Mino even more effective?

2. 20k Vitamin D every other day with all the fat solubles, and 500mg-1g Magnesium acetate daily

3. Low Pufa Diet (under 1g): skim milk, date syrup, OJ, rice noodles, some ketchup, some 2% mozzarella, 30g fat (15g HCO, 15g stearic acid) every other day with the above vitamins

I feel pretty bad at the moment tbh, but I did feel that way before adding in the 3 above things. They just don‘t acutely help. I need to make sure to keep my blood sugar up, because if I‘m on the run and doing stuff while not having enough sugar in my system, the fatigue really kicks in. That might be a downside to such a low fat diet (potentially unstable blood sugar) but a higher fat doesn‘t seem to fix that for me, and brings problems like the Randle cycle and PUFA with it.

 

[milkboi]

@yerrag And others: Do you think Minocycline could bring on symptoms of a cold (or worsen them)? Through increased Endotoxin load maybe?

 

[yerrag]

I haven't used it myself. @CLASH may know more of it.

 

[CLASH]

Tetracyclines messed up my gut for a little while. Think they caused some fungal issues, but I did take high doses. Using charcoal while using the antibiotic may help prevent this but I havent tried it. For antimicrobial purposes now I much prefer herbs and specific supplements.

I dont think the randle cycle is what causes diabetes, I think its PUFA and endotoxin. I don't think the randle cycle really matters that much. Increasing fat doesnt necessarily have to increase PUFA that much. Keeping PUFA extremely low didnt make that much difference for me. I stick to 4g/2000kcal as much as I can. Currently I eat 7g of PUFA on a 3500kcal diet.

In my experience I would feel god awful on the diet listed above... Looks to me like a recipe for blood sugar swings all day with no energy, poor digestive function, and zero hormones.

 

[yerrag]

Tetracyclines messed up my gut for a little while. Think they caused some fungal issues, but I did take high doses. Using charcoal while using the antibiotic may help prevent this but I havent tried it. For antimicrobial purposes now I much prefer herbs and specific supplements.

I dont think the randle cycle is what causes diabetes, I think its PUFA and endotoxin. I don't think the randle cycle really matters that much. Increasing fat doesnt necessarily have to increase PUFA that much. Keeping PUFA extremely low didnt make that much difference for me. I stick to 4g/2000kcal as much as I can. Currently I eat 7g of PUFA on a 3500kcal diet.

In my experience I would feel god awful on the diet listed above... Looks to me like a recipe for blood sugar swings all day with no energy, poor digestive function, and zero hormones.

This is interesting reading on plant-derived compounds with antibacteral activity. Thanks CLASH!

 

[Constatine]

Regularly eating lots of mushrooms can aid general immunity. Shiitake mushrooms specifically are great.

 

[milkboi]

Regularly eating lots of mushrooms can aid general immunity. Shiitake mushrooms specifically are great.

Good tipp, that‘s worth a try, thanks. Any suggestions for supplements if I don‘t want to spend time regularly boiling shrooms?

 

[Constatine]

Good tipp, that‘s worth a try, thanks. Any suggestions for supplements if I don‘t want to spend time regularly boiling shrooms?

The host defense mushrooms have good reviews though I'm not too familiar with mushroom supplements. I typically just cook mushrooms.

 

[Wagner83]

They have also been accused to be mostly uncooked starch. I don't know what to make of these wars for the mushroom supplements market. It could be a coincidence but I couldn't stop coughing and spitting green when I used their cordyceps.

@milkboi, in case you haven't seen this thread here is a refreshing point of view 2 Years Since I Didn't Come Here: I Healed All Of My Health Problems