hello from a 2/4 doc

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
jmather
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hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by jmather »

Hi everyone!

After reading Bredesen's book three times and working apoE4 patients , I thought that I should probably get around to checking out the apoe4 forum - and I am so happy that I did.

After reading for a few hours, I am so impressed with the quality of good advice and information that is here. Fantastic work! It's refreshing to to find a group of people so invested in improving their health.

I'm hopeful to learn all I can from your experiences to help my patients. So hello to all, and I hope to contribute to the effort here to advance this type of medicine.

Joe
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Tincup
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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by Tincup »

Welcome jmather. Glad you found us! Some resources, if you haven't stumbled upon them yet. A primer, written by a GP. How to get the most out of the site, wiki. and the wiki in general. Lastly the search function.
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Stavia
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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by Stavia »

Welcome jmather :)
What sort of strategies do you follow?
What field are you in currently?

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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

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I'm Family Practice trained, and have been practicing functional medicine for the last 2 years. My practice is tilting toward GI health as I've found a lot of success there, but after seeing how powerful the Bredesen Protocol is I'd like to expand that section of my practice in the future. There is a big need in my community for more functional medicine services.

What I love about the Bredesen Protocol is that the individual strategies were all things I found to be helpful for other patients. I'm of the opinion that the book could have an alternate title: "The End of (Chronic) Disease."

Personally, prior to learning my 2/4 status I was experimenting with a fairly intense ketogenic diet for about a year, so my default way of eating is fairly low carb and low in processed food and sugar. At the present I'm focusing on optimizing my body composition with resistance training and fasting. I train pretty heavy 3 days a week and typically have a 24 hour fast once a week. My biomarkers are pretty good - reversed a long tendency towards prediabetes last year. I worry most about chronic stress affecting my cognition, so I'm focusing on building my practice in a way that will let me practice medicine happily for a long long time. :)

I've recently stumbled across some really impactful research on the benefit of sauna, so I hope to begin to incorporate that into my lifestyle. Are you all aware of the following study? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27932366
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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by jmather »

Stavia - you must be in New Zealand, right?! I practiced in Whanganui for a year after residency.
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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

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jmather wrote: Personally, prior to learning my 2/4 status I was experimenting with a fairly intense ketogenic diet for about a year, so my default way of eating is fairly low carb and low in processed food and sugar. At the present I'm focusing on optimizing my body composition with resistance training and fasting. I train pretty heavy 3 days a week and typically have a 24 hour fast once a week. My biomarkers are pretty good - reversed a long tendency towards prediabetes last year. I worry most about chronic stress affecting my cognition, so I'm focusing on building my practice in a way that will let me practice medicine happily for a long long time. :)
One of my friends, a doc, had me look at his Promethease data. Turns out he is a 2/2. My understanding of 2's is they are prone to hypertriglyceridemia, hence at low carb approach may be beneficial.
jmather wrote: I've recently stumbled across some really impactful research on the benefit of sauna, so I hope to begin to incorporate that into my lifestyle. Are you all aware of the following study? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27932366
Yep, I converted a 2.5'x4' basement shower to a near infrared sauna, using four 250 W heat lamps. I insulated the sliding doors, walls & top with Reflectix insulation (aluminum sandwiching thin bubble wrap). I probably spend 35-40 minutes in it 4-5 mornings a week and follow with a 20 minute cold bath. The cold is just tap water, so around 65 deg F now but is 49 deg F in the winter. My 4/4 wife also spends about 25 minutes in the sauna, but isn't a fan of the cold water :lol: The IR air doesn't get that hot, maybe 110 deg F, but I sweat profusely after about 5 minutes in it. We recently decided to get enough towels so we could have a fresh one each day so as to not reabsorb what we are sweating out.
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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by jmather »

That's pretty inspiring. I hadn't considered building my own sauna, and that seems like a great set up. Has to be cheaper than some of the units I see online... At the moment I'm content going outside in the Louisiana summer and sweating whenever possible!

Yes, I do tend to see more triglyceridemia in my patients with 2's.
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Re: RE: Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

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jmather wrote:Stavia - you must be in New Zealand, right?! I practiced in Whanganui for a year after residency.
Yup, Auckland. I'm a mainstream GP here, with a busy family practice. I don't intend to move towards functional medicine in my work as we are not looking to expand, its very expensive for patients here, and very time consuming.
But I do try to use general principles as much as possible.

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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

Post by Stavia »

Yup we saw the Helsinki study, Rhonda Patrick discusses heat shock and cold shock proteins in one of her podcasts.


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Re: hello from a 2/4 doc

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jmather wrote:That's pretty inspiring. I hadn't considered building my own sauna, and that seems like a great set up. Has to be cheaper than some of the units I see online... At the moment I'm content going outside in the Louisiana summer and sweating whenever possible!
I think I spent $150 on it. I used this guy's plans and wiring diagram for the 4 bulb unit. Same idea as this commercial unit Image, though I have one large wire guard (1/4" mesh as I recall) over all the bulbs rather than indivisual ones. I have one on off wall type switch to turn them on and off. I use a heavy duty extension cord run to a GFI (ground fault interupter) outlet. I used these bulbs. I also bought Wilson's book.

I hung mine from the shower fixture, put a wooden stool in on top of towel on the floor and we put a towel on the stool. Also have a thermometer and a timer sitting on a soap dish in the back of the shower. The lights are primarily pointed at the torso. Found conflicting info whether it was good for eyes to look at the lights, so took the conservative approach and used these blackout covers.
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