Sorry if I’ve been away for a while.
Did you miss me?
Well?
Did you?
Appears my 2.5 years of avoiding COVID finally ended at 2.5 years.
It started at the office and then I caught it and brought it home. Everyone is doing much better and on the mend. Thanks to everyone for their kind words and understanding this past week that I was doing my best to try and work from home.
How was it you ask?
I always like working from home.
Oh, you mean how was COVID ?
Honestly it felt like I was poisoned by a toxin, with the toxin produced and spread by others breathing out the toxin. This is how all respiratory viruses in the past have spread. With COVID though, it’s like some people in a lab figured out how to use humans to spread toxins easier. I’m telling you, this did not feel like anything I have had before.
I was never badly ill. Had 3-4 days of fatigue, fevers and body aches. Breathing was always fine. But it felt like someone turned on my inflammatory switch and I started hurting especially in areas of weakness, like my lower back from my tennis playing years.
I believe the “virus/toxin/poison” we call COVID is an inflammatory toxin that stresses and weakens your immune system. You get hyper-inflamed which can hit people with high underlying inflammatory levels hardest, those being the elderly and people with chronic medical illnesses especially Diabetes and other metabolic imbalances.
I also believe COVID at least temporarily lowers your immune systems ability to fight off dormant viruses/bacteria/yeast/fungi that have been silently living in your body without causing trouble. Now these pathogens can “wake up” and you get hit not only with COVID hyper-inflammation but now recurrent other infections like pneumonia or Shingles or even worse with hypercoagulation/clotting issues. As I said this is a strange strange infection that just does not appear “natural”.
Here’s the rub.
I hadn’t been sick in at least 6 years and I believe that is due to my Keto-Carnivorish lifestyle. That is why this COVID episode was so strange.
But enough about COVID.
Time to move forward. So I miss moshed a few items of interest that I believe are worth your time.
1- A new paper published on the benefits of a ketogenic diet on mental health. Can you believe all 100% benefitted to some degree?
Read it for yourself and do with it what you want. But I have been touting the anti-inflammatory effects of a keto carnivore lifestyle for some time now, and here we have an actual mental health study to back this up.
Yes Keto lifestyles are anti-inflammatory for your brain.
That’s a good thing!!
2- Ever heard the term Lean Mass Hyper Responder (LMHR)?
It is a term for people who when they use a ketogenic like diet they end up with
very low triglycerides
high HDL cholesterol
high LDL cholesterol
yet seem to be spared from vascular risk.
These people tend to be lean, exercise a whole lot and just appear to be in great health.
My friend and citizen scientist Dave Feldman was one of the authors on this paper and this has been his area of study for many years now. What’s really interesting about Dave is that he is an engineer and did not have any medical research experience prior to getting the lipid bug.
I suggest you read more about his views on cholesterol/lipids on his website. It will be worth your time and would prepare you for when we review your IMW- Advanced Wellness Testing (AWT).
One of the theories that LMHR are trying to prove is that LDL cholesterol alone is NOT a risk factor for heart disease and that you need to look at the entire metabolic picture instead.
LMHR generally are extremely metabolically healthy.
I use much of Dave’s research in practice as I believe he is much more correct about cholesterol/lipids than the traditional healthscare system.
At the IMW I also use the IMW Trifecta of Metabolic Health when reviewing your AWT.
1- Low Fasting Insulin
2- Low Triglycerides
3- High HDL
Interesting isn’t it how your metabolic health does not involve LDL cholesterol ???
I just wish more docs in the traditional world would open their eyes and minds and look at Daves research or just spend a few days with me in practice.
3-
Lastly let’s briefly chat Adiponectin.
The link above briefly discusses the many benefits of Adiponectin.
I often describe Adiponectin, a hormone that comes from your fat cells, as a hormone that tells us “how much room remains in your fat cells to SAFELY store more fat”. So the higher the Adiponectin the better. Think of Adiponectin as a buffer that protects your organs.
Adiponectin is on the IMW-AWT and we use it to follow the healthy progress of our IMW patients.
I hope to be back in-office next week as well as hope to resume more frequent Common Sense Health and Wellness posts/blogs/newsletters.
That is enough for now.
But what’s a blog post without a few memes?
Word order is important???
As always, comments and questions welcome and encouraged.
I can’t believe this all came from bat soup...
Interesting to get your take. Y said the same thing about Covid not feeling natural.