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Verities of the Esselstyn Diet & the Oddball Things About Carnivorous Cravings

 I was on the Esselstyn Diet, Dr Esselstyn is a cardiologist and the diet is for cutting down on the plaque that tends to cling to the sides of my arteries.   I had a three way bypass and the one on the right side failed which left me feeling like someone was sitting on my chest at about 2:00 in the AM.  I was motivated to be on that diet and it worked great, except for that fact that I was missing some nutrients  that appear to be in meat. It's a vegan diet, and the source of omega-3 fatty acids is from ground up flax seed which was great for his patients, but I don't have the enzyme to do the conversion from short chain to long chain omegas.  I ended up chugging cod liver oil.  The stuff I use now does not have the lemon flavor so it tastes like cod liver.   After a couple of years my doctor told me that my balance was off, and I seemed fragile.   I was. I fell a lot. What pushed me into eating meat was that I knew I was missing something, my mind was going and I became aller
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The Peculiarities of Uric Acid

 I've been listening to some discussions and lectures about uric acid.   My brother had gout, and that's from crystals of uric acid being deposited in joints because you have too much of the stuff.  Aside from that almost nobody talks about elevated uric acid values as a problem, but that's changing.  The general idea is that things like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and dementia are related to elevated levels of uric acid.  I've watched this one featuring Dr Perlmutter:            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6jPCcFNa8  And I'm about to watch this one featuring Dr Johnson:           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTxkAK82e0I I've added quercetin to my list of supplements, and take it daily.  Uric acid is on the list of tests I'll be taking in a couple of weeks time. Phil  
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Vitamin D & Blood Tests That Relate

My calcium and magnesium were tested on a blood draw from March 17th, and booth were well in the normal range.  The calcium was 9.4 mg/dL and magnesium was 5.1 which is normal.  My vitamin D level last November was 78.5 ng/dL, my new value is 135 ng/dL. The reason I bring this up is that with high doses of vitamin D (I'm doing 40,000 IU per day), the two biggest problems are a deficiency of magnesium, which people can have anyway, and calcium rising and causing problems such as kidney stones. Or worse.   I got this information from Jeff Bowles , who has some interesting reading material on the subject of vitamin D, and its co-factors.
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Vitamin D3 and K2

I have, over the past decade or so, had difficulty getting a good night's sleep. I felt that I was missing something, but didn't have any idea as to what it could be. Then I read a letter from a doctor to his patients . At first I was afraid to go all the way to 30,000 IU of vitamin D, then I get braver and I was doing 50,000. I didn't turn into a frog. I listened to a video by Jeff Bowles , who discusssed vitamin D co-factors . One of which is vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is important in calcium regulation. If calcium is not going to the right places, vitamin K2 will help get it there. Perhaps the most serious high dose vitamin D side effect is a rising blood calcium level, which can result in unfortuanate side effects such as nausea, kidney stones and death. So along with 40,0000 IU of vitamin D3, I'm taking 550mcg of Vitamins K and K2: vitamin k1 phytonadione 100mcg, vitamin k2 menatetrenone 400mcg, vitamin k2 menaquinone 50mcg. I split the D3 into two doses
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My Brain Seems to Function Pretty Well

Getting older (I'm 72), I expected some memory degradation and some function deterioration, but I seem OK. I don't remember details, but I do remember some details.  Better than my wife and she's younger than I am. I don't know which supplements seem to have helped my brain, although I can say that the reintroduction of saturated fat into my diet has helped.   I seem less frail. That also introduced more fat soluble vitamins.  The combination of CoQ10 and B2 was helpful, according to my ophthalmologist, my optic nerve is over sized (and oddly, the back of my eyes do not look like I have had diabetes for a couple of decades).  That supplement combination helps grow nerves. Although I'm off the Esselstyn diet, I still try to avoid meat, vegetable oils and I don't eat a lot of nuts.  I do eat eggs (pastured), although not many, and a few other things that are bad for me such as chicken salad, but I limit them. I still have my vegetable soup with some handfuls of sp
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Meat and Inflamation, Why are We Different?

In a prior post , I noted how red meat, and actually, other meats too, give us long term inflammation because it has a component which can become a component of our cells, functions as well as its corresponding human component, but is noticeable to our immune system, which creates antibodies which attack our cells. Animals can eat meat, like our relatives the chimpanzees, who eat meat, as well as animals who are not close to us who eat meat.   We're different from them. There is an old conspiracy theory, going back thousands of years, that the gods created us from some hominid and their own DNA.  What's that quote about the best laid plans of mice and men? This is just one place where we're not the same as the species we are supposed to have evolved from.   This is about an enzyme that is supposed to convert our sialic acid to the kind monkeys use.   We don't have it, monkey's do.  FYI:  cows and tigers have it too. I guess the god's weren't infallible or di
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Inflammation and Red Meat

Over the last year, I've been overstepping the Esselstyn diet and eating things that are probably not good for me.  I've even tried a little meat, usually not red meat, but maybe a little chicken or fish.  Recalling T Colin Campbell and what he said about animal protein, and how it increased the odds of cancer, it was eye opening to find something that supported that and discusses a mechanism for the inflammation that results from eating meat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkRilP1OTU My question is: are the fats ok? Phil
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