Questions about insulin

[Sara]

Hi Jan18, Read the article and my comment is simple and to the point... I am not buying what she is selling. It's an old story and has to a great extent been disproved. I would get my information from more informed sources... including Bredesen and Gundry. Keto Clarity is a good source for the basic plan. You just need to modify it for whatever health issue you are prioritizing.

[Jan18]

Hi Jan18, Read the article and my comment is simple and to the point... I am not buying what she is selling. It's an old story and has to a great extent been disproved. I would get my information from more informed sources... including Bredesen and Gundry. Keto Clarity is a good source for the basic plan. You just need to modify it for whatever health issue you are prioritizing.

Hi Sara,
Thanks for the link!

I thought the article was misinformed, too.

Barbara

[Jan18]

You’re loading your food intake into chronometer, that’s great, but you said you don’t have a glucometer, so you know the “go-in-zas” but you don’ know the “go-out-zas.” Let’s take broccoli. It’s a good low carb food, right? I know someone who can’t eat broccoli because it spikes her glucose. Don’t know why, but she never would have figured that out without a glucometer. If you know what your food is doing to your glucose, you can focus on less or more of that food. Measure your glucose at one hour after eating, for most people, that's a good point to see what the meal is doing to your blood sugar. Ideally, at two hours after eating, blood glucose levels should be back to normal, that's ideal, don't get hung up on trying to get that, work on keeping the glucose response to a meal reasonable. Get a good glucometer, cheap glucometers are out there, but the results are, well, you get what you pay for. I have a Keto-Mojo, it measures glucose and ketones, I like it. If you’re not into measuring ketones right now, you don’t have to buy the ketone strips.

Theresa,
I just wanted to tell you my Keto-Mojo meter arrived and I did my first ketone reading this morning. It was 1.8. Bredesen wants us to be inbetween 0.5-2.5, if I recall correctly. I was ecstatic!

Tomorrow I start seeing what my glucose responses are the way you suggested.

Question: I have only experienced that really dizzy/scary feeling once since I restarted this after my winter bout of continued dizziness/brain fog. Not knowing quite what to do back then, it caused me to give up the strict macro ratios and add in more carbs (and "treats" like ice cream and chocolate truffles.)

When I came back to the 70/20/10, I have only had days where I had slight lightheadedness or headache, nothing nearly as extreme as I had last winter.

So my question is: Do you always or even occasionally have these symptoms on Gundry/Bredesen's keto plan? Or am I still "adapting?"

Thank you!
Barbara

[Tincup]

When I came back to the 70/20/10, I have only had days where I had slight lightheadedness or headache, nothing nearly as extreme as I had last winter.

So my question is: Do you always or even occasionally have these symptoms on Gundry/Bredesen's keto plan? Or am I still "adapting?"

A lot of individuality here. I don't have those symptoms. The light headedness can be lower blood pressure. Higher blood pressure can be driven by higher insulin. When you drop your glucose, insulin will drop. When insulin is high, it signals the kidney to retain sodium. The converse is true when insulin drops. Your system should normalize over time. I've been keto adapted since Oct 2009, hence am well adapted.

[Jan18]

A lot of individuality here. I don't have those symptoms. The light headedness can be lower blood pressure. Higher blood pressure can be driven by higher insulin. When you drop your glucose, insulin will drop. When insulin is high, it signals the kidney to retain sodium. The converse is true when insulin drops. Your system should normalize over time. I've been keto adapted since Oct 2009, hence am well adapted.

Thanks.

Can you (or anyone here) tell me how to get enough potassium if we aren't eating potatoes (sweet potatoes in moderation, yes, but that's not enough alone) or beans? There are a few other high potassium foods (like tomato sauce, watermelon, frozen spinach, beets, canned salmon, edamame, butternut squash, Swiss chard and yogurt) but some aren't allowed and the others I don't like.

With high LDL and overall cholesterol, I really need enough potassium for my heart! NIH website says we are supposed to take in 4700mg a day! That's HUGE! See their potassium counts for foods here: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Potas ... fessional/

And mostly foods we can't have.

[Julie G]

I made the mistake of worry about potassium based on CHRON-O-meter output. I began supplementing and spent about a month on the verge of fainting until I figured it out; aka slow learner . It sounds like you may already have low blood pressure. Look at your serum levels. Potassium is tightly controlled. CHRON-O-meter is interesting when it comes to electrolytes, but don't begin supplementing unless your blood testing suggests you should.

[Verax]

I agree with TheresaB who writes

Lastly, you may be doing all the right things, it just may take a while. I

Ketogenic lifestyle is not easy. It took me many months when I tried it first, with intermittent fasting and carbohydrate restriction. The bacteria in the gut have to adjust, and who knows how long it takes for them to stabilize. I went by waist circumference rather than the ketone meter than didn't seem to correspond with what I was doing, and I would say six months might see results. (The microbiome first sent a signal to my brain--when my belt broke!--- to stop eating what my family ate.) In order to see fast progress, restrict calories even more at first and then when lose weight add resistance exercises and protein for healthy lean body mass. Many people give up ketogenic diets because they don't fit into modern civilization (we E4 carriers are left over from the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers). The reCODE protocol and the Virta Health project and the DiRECT trial use intensive health coaches who can help adapt to each person and phenotype, as what you read and see on TV is supposed to apply to everybody but doesn't necessarily meet needs of E4s or those with comorbid conditions. We who try to do it ourselves with just books and podcasts and online moderators, excellent as they are, deserve some pity and congratulations for small steps.

[Jan18]

I made the mistake of worry about potassium based on CHRON-O-meter output. I began supplementing and spent about a month on the verge of fainting until I figured it out; aka slow learner . It sounds like you may already have low blood pressure. Look at your serum levels. Potassium is tightly controlled. CHRON-O-meter is interesting when it comes to electrolytes, but don't begin supplementing unless your blood testing suggests you should.

Hi Julie,
I take 5 mg. amlodipine besylate for blood pressure. With this new way of eating, it vacillates between the 120's/80's down to 98/69, whereas with the meds and old eating patterns, it was regularly in the 130's/80's. According to old guidelines, that was fine for seniors. I've read that they consider that range high BP new. (My blood pressure before menopause was regularly 90's/60's.) Average readings are in the 110-120/74-80 range. I'm keeping my doctor in the loop on this. I went off the meds last winter doing the program and my BP stayed fine, but it went up again when I went off of the program, trying to figure out where the dizziness was coming from. I may try going off them again now. My hope is that eventually I'll be able to stay off of them!

I always feel a little lightheaded, but assumed that was adapting to ketosis. I've been doing the program very strictly (except for a two day lapse) for a month now. Yesterday my ketone reading was .8. But it is usually in the middle of Bredesen's recommended range. Glucose is in the 70's -- though two days it was 104 and 102 as I ate "off" the program while on a mini-trip, with limited food choices. Went right back to 70's when I returned. Does it take longer to be keto-adapted? I have MCT oil and could use it, but so far the lightheadedness doesn't bother me much.

I'm not sure I understand your potassium supplementation comment, though. Are you saying cronometer.com (is ours the same one?) doesn't track potassium levels accurately and I should have them tracked by my doctor? Or do you mean it's hard for tests to accurately measure potassium anyway?

I'm also concerned about calcium. Not taking calcium supplements but with no dairy, it's hard to get it all through food, especially since Gundry tells ApoE4's not to do salmon and that's the only fish I like! And why can't ApoE4's have berries? They were the only fruit besides green bananas (which I haven't tried yet) that we were allowed. <sigh>

Sorry, I ramble. So my questions are (1) could my lightheadedness be the potassium and should I get a test to see? (2) Should I be using the MCT oil for other reasons right now? (3) How do we get enough calcium? (4) Why are salmon and berries not good for ApoE4's according to Gundry (not sure if that is in Plant Paradox or in one of the interviews I've seen him do.)

Thanks,
Barbara

[Jan18]

I agree with TheresaB who writes

Lastly, you may be doing all the right things, it just may take a while. I

Ketogenic lifestyle is not easy. It took me many months when I tried it first, with intermittent fasting and carbohydrate restriction. The bacteria in the gut have to adjust, and who knows how long it takes for them to stabilize. I went by waist circumference rather than the ketone meter than didn't seem to correspond with what I was doing, and I would say six months might see results. (The microbiome first sent a signal to my brain--when my belt broke!--- to stop eating what my family ate.) In order to see fast progress, restrict calories even more at first and then when lose weight add resistance exercises and protein for healthy lean body mass. Many people give up ketogenic diets because they don't fit into modern civilization (we E4 carriers are left over from the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers). The reCODE protocol and the Virta Health project and the DiRECT trial use intensive health coaches who can help adapt to each person and phenotype, as what you read and see on TV is supposed to apply to everybody but doesn't necessarily meet needs of E4s or those with comorbid conditions. We who try to do it ourselves with just books and podcasts and online moderators, excellent as they are, deserve some pity and congratulations for small steps.

Thanks for weighing in, Verax.

I'm in moderate ketosis, glucose levels are in range, BP isn't "too low" (according to websites like Mayo Clinic) so I just need to figure out why I'm lightheaded after a month of eating this way. Is it the potassium level, because I'm not getting much through the limited foods we are allowed!

P.S. I'm losing weight. Have lost a total of 18 lbs, but not all in that one month! I'd say I'd lost maybe 8 the months before when I was "kinda" doing the program and the other 10 since I went strictly on it.

Barbara

[Julie G]

I'm not sure I understand your potassium supplementation comment, though. Are you saying cronometer.com (is ours the same one?) doesn't track potassium levels accurately and I should have them tracked by my doctor? Or do you mean it's hard for tests to accurately measure potassium anyway?

CHRON-O-meter.com may calculate your potassium intake just fine, but it isn't necessarily a reflection of your serum potassium. Only a simple blood test can reveal that. If you're already struggling with lightheadedness due to hypotension, I'd be VERY hesitant to supplement with potassium.

Congrats on all of your health improvements so far, Jan. I suspect you won't need your BP med much longer- KUDOS!