New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan18 wrote: P.S. How do I actually delete a post? The one I made above this I tried to delete, but cannot figure it out.
Hi Jan, I'm not sure if people without "mod" powers can do it. You can edit your posts by clicking the pencil icon in the upper right. If you click on the pencil, then scroll to the very bottom and see if there is a check box for deletion. You can look for this box to see if you can do it. Though not officially a moderator, I have mod powers because of other functions I perform for the group and have deleted the post for you.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Can anyone tell me or direct me to a place to find the answer for these questions:

(1) Is sourdough bread made from starter (as in homemade or an old-fashioned bakery) okay on the AD diet?

I am under the impression from my reading that the main reason grains are discouraged is because of their inflammatory response. And I thought the inflammatory response was largely due to the GMO factor in our grains today, as well as gluten and perhaps the preservative (forgot the name of it) used in manufactured breads today, which is toxic to the body.

I thought I'd read somewhere in the many articles and books on Alzheimer's and healthy eating, etc. that I've been pouring over the last month that sourdough made from starter is an exception to the "avoid grains/bread" dictate. Maybe I'd read it in The Blue Zones?

And (2) do your inflammation markers provide the best feedback on whether the diet you are consuming is working for you?

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. (And by the way, if sourdough is safer than conventional breads, I still would limit it to maybe one slice of toast a day or even less frequently. I wouldn't overdo it.)
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan18 wrote:Can anyone tell me or direct me to a place to find the answer for these questions:

(1) Is sourdough bread made from starter (as in homemade or an old-fashioned bakery) okay on the AD diet?
Dr Gundry talks about this in chapter 2 of his book The Plant Paradox
Regarding sourdough, he writes:
“Would it surprise you then to learn that sourdough bread, made by fermenting wheat with bacteria and yeast, consistently ranks as one of the safest and least injurious breads, in terms of blood sugar spikes?”
Jan18 wrote:I am under the impression from my reading that the main reason grains are discouraged is because of their inflammatory response. And I thought the inflammatory response was largely due to the GMO factor in our grains today, as well as gluten and perhaps the preservative (forgot the name of it) used in manufactured breads today, which is toxic to the body.
Gluten is only part of the problem. Throughout chapter 2 of his Plant Paradox book, he discusses the health concerns with lectins. He also says that the problem with “gluten-free” foods is the ingredients have been replaced with other things that contain glutenlike lectins, so back to square one.

The preservative you spoke of is butyl hydroxytoluene (BHT), to which he says, “you might as well be spiking your bread or cereal with estrogen.”

He also cautions about transglutaminase, which has replaced yeast, it is also a binding agent and makes baked products fluffier and more appealing.. Yeast ferments and destroys lectins in wheat taming their effects, transglutaminase doesn't do that. He says transglutaminase sensitizes us to glutens even if we’re not gluten sensitive. He says transglutaminase can pass the blood brain barrier and act as a neurotransmitter disruptor. Yet transglutaminase is FDA approved and doesn’t need to appear on product labels.
Jan18 wrote:And (2) do your inflammation markers provide the best feedback on whether the diet you are consuming is working for you?
I think it’s important to track more than just inflammation to verify my diet. Insulin resistance is bad for everyone, but superbad for ApoE4s, so I feel monitoring HbA1c, fasting glucose, and insulin is also very important. So is homocysteine, HDL to TG ratio, sdLDL or oxLDL, hormones, Vitamin D, Omega 3, ferritin, ketones and others. They all have something to offer. Also, sometimes an inflammation marker has nothing to do with diet. I had a high inflammatory marker on one of my tests, it was because I was recovering from a cold when the test was taken, it had nothing to do with my diet.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Thanks, Theresa, for reiterating all of that. As soon as I read it, I remembered all of those details. But you have summarized it in a concise post that I will find easier to refer to. I appreciate your time and effort!

My internist, who tested for the ApoE gene for me four years ago without me even knowing its significance (I'd told her my mom and aunt both had dementia, probably Alzheimer's though they didn't have autopsies) has been testing my homocysteine, blood lipids, Vitamin D (mine is 51) fasting glucose, insulin, and Vitamin B12 regularly. I've had my thyroid tested and there are other tests that I have that I can't recall right now. I went through my records from last year (I see her next week for my yearly) and the only one of those tests not in the recommended range was homocysteine, a very important one. I've made a list of the recommended tests to take to a functional doctor the end of this month as I plan to have her monitor this instead of my internist...mostly because Bredesen recommends having a partnership with a functional medicine doctor and I know this one has used his protocol for several years now with Alzheimer-risk patients. So whatever tests my internist doesn't do (which are all insurance covered) my functional medicine doctor will do. I am hoping my functional medicine doctor will be able to guide me and help me tweak any out of range markers, according to Bredesen's protocol.

To be clear, I didn't mean to suggest I would monitor my situation only through inflammation markers. I just wondered if you can isolate specific items in the diet if your inflammation markers are high. I suppose it is trial and error? I've never been told my blood sugars were an issue or that I had insulin resistance. But maybe they need to do ALL of those tests to determine that, not just the ones I've been doing. I'll reread the evaluation part of the protocol and try to keep all of the tests straight.

So is the answer as long as we make sourdough from starter made from fermented wheat (organic) with bacteria and yeast, sourdough might be okay eaten infrequently? Or would you say to swear off ALL wheat products?
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan18 wrote:I've never been told my blood sugars were an issue or that I had insulin resistance.
Not to scare you, but most of us are not told we have blood sugar/insulin issues until it is far progressed. If you do an advanced search on Dr Joseph Kraft in these forums, he’s been discussed many times. Long story short, he found that 80% of subjects who would be classified as “normal” under fasting glucose tests are not normal in their insulin response. Most doctors are even ignorant of this. As a result many people are “flying under the radar” thinking they're just fine and healthy when, if they continue with their diet and sedentary lifestyle, significant health concerns are inevitably in their future.

(Warning: Soapbox alert) I’m guessing this is because there’s no drug to prescribe for a problem that is waiting to happen and most folks dismiss their doctor telling them to modify their diet/lifestyle when they don't understand the problem and feel fine. Excuse my cynicism because I know there are good doctors out there, but it does seem that if drugs or surgery can’t be prescribed, there is no health issue in the eyes of modern medicine. :( Given the ramifications we face, knowledgeable ApoE4s are very sensitive to the fact that we can't wait until there is a problem, especially with Alzheimer's, there is no drug that can be prescribed. I commend you for working with a functional doctor, I hope you two forge a true partnership to uncover the roots of any issues impeding your optimal health. (Okay, stepping off my soapbox.)

Back to why we should be concerned with blood sugar/insulin issues. This past February I heard a presentation by Dr Ted Naiman on Insulin Resistance, it’s available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd8QFD5Ht18. In the presentation he talked about how deaths can be placed in 5 categories. 30% of the deaths fall into 4 categories: toxic, kinetic, microbial, and genetic. 70% of the deaths fall into the 5th category, chronic disease. The three big hitters in the chronic disease category are: cardiovascular, cancer, and chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Underpinning chronic disease is insulin resistance!
Jan18 wrote:I just wondered if you can isolate specific items in the diet if your inflammation markers are high.
Doctor Gundry uses adiponectin and TNF-alpha for lectin sensitivity. Adiponectin is a good marker indicating yes/no there is a sensitivity, but not necessarily the level of sensitivity, that’s where the inflammation marker TNF-alpha comes in. When he sees high adiponectin in his patients, he takes away major sources of lectins, their TNF-alphas dip to normal, and their adiponectin stays high. But the adiponectin lectin indicator can be “masked” by obesity, i.e. the obesity lowers adiponectin, yet the person can still be lectin sensitive. If you’re thin and have low adiponectin and don’t have any of the other inflammatory markers, odds are you’re not lectin sensitive. Here’s his abstract - http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129 ... pl_1/AP354

So why, as ApoE4s should we care? When he looked at the medical literature, he found the women’s health study that showed skinny women with high adiponectin levels had a very high incidence of dementia.
Jan18 wrote:sourdough might be okay eaten infrequently? Or would you say to swear off ALL wheat products?
It might be okay for you. Plus we can't live our lives feeling continually deprived.

Personally, I stay away from all wheat products. We've found recipes for low-carb, wheat-alternative bread-like products (sounds yummy, huh? :lol: ). I hadn’t experienced brain fog, rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, or any of the other common wheat ingestion complaints, nevertheless, I tested lectin sensitive and gluten sensitive. I don’t have the celiac gene, but I react to gluten. I cheated just a little, honestly, over the holidays last year and my blood test in early January turned up bright red).

If I wasn’t lectin and gluten sensitive, and I was confident I had a healthy gut biome, I’d still definitely stay away from whole grain wheat products. Do you remember Dr Gundry discussing Wheat Germ Agglutinin in Plant Paradox? He wrote,
Wheat germ agglutinin is an especially small protein compared with other lectins, which are large. So even if the gut mucosal barrier has not been compromised, WGA can pass through the walls of the intestine more easily than other lectins can. But this is just one of the many ill effects caused by consuming WGA. It also: [cherry picked the ones of particular interest to ApoE4s here]
1. Behaves like insulin, disrupting normal endocrine function by pumping sugar into fat cells, where the sugar soon turns to fat, resulting in weight gain and the development of insulin resistance.
6. Crosses the blood-brain barrier, taking with it other substances to which it has bonded, causing neurological problems
8. Causes atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries from a buildup of plaque
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Thank you for the information about adiponection and TNF-alpha. This is all so much to learn!

How often do you have blood tests and which ones are the ones that need to be regularly repeated? Does the entire list of recommended tests need to frequently be repeated? And whose list of tests should I refer to? I believe I printed out the list of tests recommended here (maybe in the Intro/Primer section?) Will recheck.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan18 wrote:How often do you have blood tests and which ones are the ones that need to be regularly repeated?
My husband and I consult with Dr Gundry every 6 months. I understand he likes to test most patients, or at least those with issues, every 3 months, but since our first tests were pretty good overall, we consult with him every 6 months.

You can see tests that Dr Gundry does at https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic ... 530#p40382. He does a LOT of tests, remember, his perspective isn't just Alzheimer's he takes a whole body, functional medicine approach and with his cardio/transplant surgeon and genetic research background he understands cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity and longevity issues in addition to the unique issues associated with ApoE4, so he seems to understand the nuances of each test he orders and doesn't always pay attention to the "in range" scale. The "in range" scale on tests is the lab's standard, not his. For example, for RBC EPA+DHA, the lab's good range is something like 8-10, but for ApoE4s, Dr Gundry prefers 10-12. I've gotten "too high/red" results for my Vitamin D, Dr Gundry was ecstatic it was so high. I guess some tests have to be ordered as a "set" (like cable TV :lol: ) because he's ignored some of the lipid markers telling us that that's just the lab's attempt at trying to get everyone on statins. He does emphasize oxLDL (used to be sdLDL which is the LDL that oxidizes, but now that he has a test for oxidized LDL itself, so he uses that), he also emphasizes the HDL to Triglyceride ratio (he likes it to be 1:1 or better, meaning HDL is the same or larger than the Triglycerides), we've discussed some others, but skip over many of the lipid test results.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't pay for a huge swath of tests if your functional doctor won't really understand the ramifications.

We've shared notes with some other Gundry patients and noted the tests he orders can vary based on the patient. He did say he had added testing for pregnenolone as a result of his discussions with Dr Bredesen.

Speaking of Dr Bredesen, in his book, The End of Alzheimer's, chapter 7 is all about the tests he recommends. Recognize, he's coming strictly from a cognitive health perspective vs Dr Gundry who is coming from an overall health/longevity perspective.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan, Theresa linked one set of tests. We've got transcripts as well as redacted copies of all our tests. This post has links to all.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Jan, Theresa linked one set of tests. We've got transcripts as well as redacted copies of all our tests. This post has links to all five consults we've done.
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Re: New, just read Gundry's book, questions

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Tincup wrote:Jan, Theresa linked one set of tests. We've got transcripts as well as redacted copies of all our tests. This post has links to all five consults we've done.
Tincup, many thanks to you and your wife for making all of this invaluable information available to us.

I've decided it's soon time for me to dive in and see what more I can learn from Dr. Gundry. So I clicked the above link to access your files and and download them. I found that the file named Test results supp diet transcript.zip contained all of the information for your 3rd consult and the transcript for your 2nd consult. However, I can't locate your test results for your 2nd consult in this file or elsewhere.

Am I overlooking an obvious link to your consult #2 test results? Or did you not do testing for your 2nd consult?
ApoE 4/4 - When I was in 7th grade, my fellow students in history class called me "The Brain" because I had such a memory for detail. I excelled at memorization and aced tests. This childhood memory helps me cope!
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