234 replies to this topic

[APBT]

So I made the mistake of eating tons of raw unsalted macadamia nuts for several days in a row after my previous posting. Predictably, my memory scores decreased on Lumosity. I've discussed this problem before which might be unique to my genetics, as vegans and paleos alike consider them healthy. (Although I do wonder whether it's all the omega-6 dominating the fat transport shuttles into the brain.)

 

It's unlikely the n-6 content of macs was the culprit.

Macadamia nuts (raw) per ounce:
Total fat 21.2 g
Saturated fat 3.4 g
Monounsaturated fat 16.5 g
Polyunsaturated fat 0.4 g

Source http://nutritiondata...products/3123/2

[resveratrol_guy]

 

So I made the mistake of eating tons of raw unsalted macadamia nuts for several days in a row after my previous posting. Predictably, my memory scores decreased on Lumosity. I've discussed this problem before which might be unique to my genetics, as vegans and paleos alike consider them healthy. (Although I do wonder whether it's all the omega-6 dominating the fat transport shuttles into the brain.)

 

It's unlikely the n-6 content of macs was the culprit.

Macadamia nuts (raw) per ounce:
Total fat 21.2 g
Saturated fat 3.4 g
Monounsaturated fat 16.5 g
Polyunsaturated fat 0.4 g

Source http://nutritiondata...products/3123/2

 

 

Good catch! I think you might have solved the nut mystery...
 

[resveratrol_guy]

OK, I've finished a month of lion's mane. I worked up to roughly 3 g/day, and had more on occasion. As you can see above, the initial results were fabulous, breaking a wide array of personal records. But after a couple weeks, things started to unravel, and my memory performance, I think, has ended up about where it started. The only retained benefit, according to the scores, appears to be reduced reaction time and improved task-switching fluidity. I should add that, while visual memory got worse, episodic memory improved. In particular, my scores at Memory Matrix and Pinball Recall dropped significantly, whereas my scores at Follow that Frog and River Ranger improved. Oddly enough, at the same time, I experienced an obvious improvement in my ability to visualize mentally. So my visual memory impairment must be due to something other than the lack of an ability to visualize; perhaps it's nothing more than the effect of reverting back to 4 or 5 g of curcumin per day, from 20.

 

It's hard to say much about lion's mane after one month of use, because it acts over a few months, but at least, I would have expected some sort of slow improvement in visual memory. On the one hand, I'd say it's clear that it's had neurological effects, but frankly it leaves a lot to be desired. My month on megadose Longvida probably did more to improve my memory in general, than my month on lion's mane.

 

It's clear to me, at this point, that substantive improvements will not be had without more drastic measures, if they can be had at all. I still intend to stick with my current supplements, lion's mane included, although I've switched back to Longvida from Solgar, and I've been pleased with that.

 

To that end, first of all, I've decided to give juicing a try. In conjunction with caloric restriction, it could in principle be healthier than a ketogenic diet, perhaps mostly on account of the hydration improvements and phytochemicals. I must admit that the idea of using a high-sugar diet to stave off dementia and cancer makes about as much sense as eating piles of fat in order to ameliorate obesity. But I've given up on trying to explain nutrition logically.

 

What I do know from the literature is that, of all the known Alzheimer's preventions, the most potent appears to be the consumption of juice at least thrice per week, which is apparently even stronger than aspirin or niacin supplementation. (Too bad the type of juice was not characterized.) What's even more impressive is that this effect was observed in the context of an otherwise normal (presumably reasonably healthy) diet, not a brain health diet assembled by a bunch of Longecity members. Granted, this might not be causal, but it's hard not to believe so, if you look at various juice fanatics on YouTube.

 

Apart from the sugar load, the biggest criticism levelled against juicing is that it's expensive and impractical. It's expensive on account of the huge number of fruits and veggies required to provide sufficient nutrition for daily needs. Personally, I prefer to call it "capital intensive", because the dividends definitely exist as compared to the SAD diet, but they're paid out over an extended period of time. It's also impractical because it takes a lot of time and effort to buy materials, produce juice, and maintain the juicing machine. Finally, it's also been suggested that some nutrients such as omega-3 and others might be hard to obtain in this manner.

 

So I've had to make a few adjustments to my plan. First of all, in deference to my neurons, I'll eat one free range organic egg every day for its fat, cholesterol, and choline content. I'll take some fish oil capsules as well, because the conversion pathway from alpha-linoleic acid to DHA and EPA is too inefficient. And on one day a week, I'll have less juice so that I can eat a normal more-or-less healthy meal, just in case juicing would otherwise cause my digestive system to forget how to operate properly. But apart from that, it's all juice (and smoothies).

 

In particular, I plan to buy my juices from the store. This will go a long way toward minimizing the hassle and cost of juicing my own, and has the advantage of providing fairly accurate calorie counts, which I can use to assess my extent of caloric restriction. I'm not going to be loyal to any particular brand, and will probably switch juices on a regular basis because I have no idea as to which ones are better than others. However, I have no intention of drinking clear refined juices or juices supplemented with anything other than vitamins or trace minerals.

 

For the moment, I'm finishing out the solid food in the fridge, and giving my body a short while to transition to this radically different fuel. I'll post here when I've finally started my first full day on the juice-and-egg diet.

 

By the way, some highly recommended layman documentaries on juicing and its clinical effects are here and here.

 

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Edited by resveratrol_guy, 15 August 2015 - 07:05 PM.

[APBT]

What I do know from the literature is that, of all the known Alzheimer's preventions, the most potent appears to be the consumption of juice at least thrice per week, which is apparently even stronger than aspirin or niacin supplementation. (Too bad the type of juice was not characterized.) 

 

Here's the full text of the study referenced in the article you linked:  http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC2266591/

[resveratrol_guy]

Thanks, APBT! I'll try to post full-text links in future when available.

 

I must say, it says a lot about our state of biotechnology that the most effective antidementia medication is... juice. I guess we have a long way to go.

 

And now for the record, which I should have done long ago, I just today shot some photos of 2 vertically neighboring age spots (arm), and some horizontally neighboring scar spots (leg), along with dimes for size reference. I'm doing this because it's possible that some future dietary or supplement regimen change will alter these spots, due to more autophagy, increased oxidative stress, or whatever. By the way, if anyone else wants to do this (for example, for c60oo studies), I suggest using coins instead of a ruler because it's much easier to get accurate measurements which are not foiled by illusory perspective effects. In case it matters for precise size measurement later, there are 3 different dimes: the one with the age spots is 2013; the ones with the scar spots are 2007 (left) and 2015 (right).

 

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Edited by resveratrol_guy, 15 August 2015 - 08:34 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

On the topic of cellular senescence, I thought it would be useful to point out the case of actress Rachel Farrokh. By the looks of it, this woman has gone about as close to the edge of death by caloric restriction as one possibly can. At 170 cm in height, she weighed just 18 kg at the bottom. She's now in hospital and posts updates on her condition from time to time as she attempts to slowly regain weight. By the looks of it, she'll come out of this alive. What most impresses me, apart from her sincerity, is that her speaking skills are essentially normal; if I close my eyes, I'm listening to a healthy, cogent person. I think this suggests something quite profound about the body's neurological response to starvation, even at death's door.

 

It goes without saying that she went too far, to the point where apoptosis and autophagy are much more enemies than friends. But I'm astonished that she has survived thus far. Moreover, she's now in a condition in which she has basically hit the outer limits of senescent cell clearance which can be obtained via fasting. I doubt, however, that she realizes how much scientific value presently resides within her blood. Moreover, I fear that the extreme benefits of her cell rejuvenation will be lost trees in a forest of chronic organ problems in the future, which may unjustifiably malign this ancient and potentially highly effective therapy. In any event, she's a living miracle of biology, and is well worth some analysis for those of you who wonder what is humanly possible. I wish her a steady recovery. Right now, her biggest threat is thiamine crash and rapid refeed syndrome, but I assume that her doctors are experts at treating starvation conditions.

 

[ceridwen]

Not too surprised about the hydrogen peroxide problem often on hot summers I have noticed spots on the back of shirts where they have been bleached by my sweat. I assumed that my head was producing it's own hydrogen peroxide. The sun literally bleaches my hair through some sort of interaction so that in the summer I end up with much lighter hair than in winter to it is almost a different colour. I think there is some sort of interactive ti on between my head sunlight and hydrogen peroxide. I have not noticed a seasonal difference in memory but it might be very subtle. Also if I am less cognitively aware in the summer I might not notice. If anything I react to the sun the way most people do by feeling brighter and happier and shrug off any bleach marks on the back of my shirts as something that always happens in the summer. Perhaps the sun gives the hydrogen peroxide a way of leaving my body that it doesn't otherwise have. I think that since I have had noticeable subjective memory loss that this has stopped happening I have not noticed any white spots where my sweat has been dripping but then again I might not,I hope this information is useful.

[ceridwen]

I think I was low in folate when my illness started. This has not appeared in blood tests I have done since. I think I'm going to have a cocktail of pomegranate and orange juice for breakfast even though the pomegranate comes in a box.This pomegranate pomegreat which describes itself as a pomegranate super juice drink is suitable for diabetics due to the addition of aronia berry juice which gives the juice a low glycemic index. They work with the independent diabetes trust. I also like hot apple juice and cinnamon. Cinnamon reduces the glycemic index of everything it's added to. I should try to have cinnamon once a day.

[resveratrol_guy]

Back to stem cell therapy... as explained here, I'm going to try intranasal nerve growth factor to see if it does anything...

 

@ceridwen: I certainly can't criticize the use cinnamon in order to blunt the impact of sugar ingestion, based on recent research. Perhaps I'll add some to my drinks. Just be careful about adding sugary drinks to a full-calorie diet. Sugar can supply you with energy, but if you get too many calories, it becomes a toxin. The only way I can imagine a juice diet being beneficial is in the context of "just enough" caloric intake to maintain health.

 

[resveratrol_guy]

For the record, I started my juice-and-egg diet yesterday. My weight is 75.5 kg, after urinating and on an empty stomach.

 

I expected to be quite hungry, but to my surprise, I was completely full on about 1100 calories, including 70 calories for the egg. There's something about a nutritionally dense smoothie that shuts down the appetite. It's not an effect that one could obtain from, say, pure refined apple juice. My assumption was that 1600 would be about the lowest I could go without getting constantly distracted by thoughts of food. But perhaps that will happen when I stop burning what little excess fat I have.

 

I must say, if nothing else, I love the convenience and ecomony of this diet. If I can sustain it for the long term (which is admittedly dubious), it will save me a huge amount of time and money dealing with shopping and cooking. Not to mention that it isn't really sensitive to season or geographic location. It's also beneficial that most juice consumers are just looking for something sweet, so they tend to purchase the high-sugar low-polyphenol drinks, which subsidizes my lower-sugar high-polyphenol drinks which cost more to produce but sell for the same price. And there aren't many diets which can be ordered in bulk over the Internet for maximum economy.

 

I'm still considering having one day a week with ad libidum eating, in light of the likely trivial difference this would consistute relative to a 7-day regimen, on account of the social and cultural benefits it would provide.

 

After 2 days of intranasal NGF, I've decided to try a different approach, based somehow on xanthohumol. I just feel that the safety, economy, and practicality of the latter would be superior.

 

[ceridwen]

What about blood glucose? I think you should monitor this experiment. There is no fiber in this diet. I think fruit juice might be better taken with food to slow glucose metabolism

[ceridwen]

Juices have calories of courae.

[resveratrol_guy]

To your point, ceridwen, I've posted this fairly enlightened video presenting an opposing view of juicing for everyone's benefit.

 

Of all the criticisms they raised, the one which most stands out is that juicing amounts to drinking the most damaging form of sugar, fructose, without much of a fiber buffer. This is true. But I think sufficiently deep caloric restriction even with a huge fraction of calories from sugar still trumps a calorically unrestricted ketogenic diet. I base this assumption on the oft-reported fact that the ketogenic diet only enables a subset of the genes which get turned on by deep caloric restriction. Obviously, we need to define "deep", which is a subject of debate. Moreover, because juices are so sickly sweet and so overloaded with nutrients, they facilitate rapid appetite shutdown, which in turn eases the transition into deep caloric restriction. (Of course, calories must be sufficient, over the long term, to maintain some minimal acceptable weight and energy budget.) They made no mention of caloric restriction in the video, which I suppose is reasonable because most people just add juice to an already calorically rich diet, which might be detrimental at that point.

 

This is why I think an even better diet would be low-sugar vegetable juice (for the beneficial phytochemicals and proper hydration) fattened up with MCT oil for calories. Thus protein would come entirely from vegetables. If, after all this, calories were still restricted (say, 40% less than "normal"), the result would be therapeutic epigentic changes in the presence of low glycation rates and maximum cancer suppression, due as much to the phytochemicals as to the presumably minimal protein consumption level. (Read: conventional CR with the added benefit of lower IGF1.) Gram for gram, excess protein seems worse IMO than excess sugar, largely because the former can persist in the plasma for much longer, exacerbating AGE formation and presenting an ongoing challenge to the kidneys.

 

So I've already moved a step ahead. Having thought this out already, I'm planning to swing from a calorically restricted sweet juice diet to a diet with about the same number of calories and a comparable polyphenol profile, but which is powered mostly by MCT. But one thing at a time. I have a stack of blueberry smoothies to down first. Speaking of which, I managed about 1200 calories today, with only about half an hour there where the food thoughts became annoying.

 

Oh and BTW I'm not worried about oxalic acid. Yes, it causes uric acid crystals to form (and as my blood tests show above, I'm already in the hazard zone), which manifests as gouty arthritis and could probably cause the occasional kidney stone (which we could then promptly pulverize with ultrasound). I've had the occasional gouty twinge in my big toe after a kale binge, from time to time. But seriously, get real. We're talking about preventing cancer, dementia, and atherosclerosis here. The gouty arthritis will probably just cause us to release more GMCSF, which is good for the brain.

[resveratrol_guy]

After 2 days of intranasal NGF, I've decided to try a different approach, based somehow on xanthohumol. I just feel that the safety, economy, and practicality of the latter would be superior.

 

Be that as it may, this NGF strategy might yet be viable, based on these recent events.
 

[resveratrol_guy]

I'm surprised by how rapidly changes have occurred in the age spot above. Have a look at this new image, taken just now in brighter light. I omitted the dime because the overall size is about the same. However, as compared to above, you can see numerous changes in the dark spots on the surface of the age spot itself. In particular: (1) the large black spot at center left has essentially disappeared and (2) there seem to be more small spots. These would seem to be contradictory findings, so I'm not sure what to make of it. I did have a lot of sun exposure yesterday, so the small spots might be transient hyperpigmentation, while the large spot disappearance suggests apoptosis or autophagy.

 

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[resveratrol_guy]

So after a week of the juice diet, I worked my way down to about 1000 calories per day. I say "worked", but the truth is that it didn't take much effort, ultimately, to stop consuming juice at the end of each day. (BTW tea is a great calorie-free stomach filler when you need it.) On the last day, I actually had to force myself to swallow the last overly sweet gulp of juice because I didn't want to go below 1000 just yet. (It speaks volumes about our nutritional culture here in the US that most juice consumers seem to think it's a healthy and delicious addition to a modern industrial diet, as in, full of antioxidants and vitamins, kids! Duh...) Now, in the absence of said industrial diet, there's something so satisfying about a nutrient-rich juice diet that it facilitates satiation much moreso than caloric restriction based on solid food. Part of it is the disgusting sweetness of it all. But part of it is also the rich water-soluble micronutrient profile. And definitely the flavor diversity helps -- something which is nonexistent in the I-can't-believe-it's-all-butter diet. Granted, it's still hard to get my head around the notion that a high-sugar diet can actually be even healthier than a ketogenic diet. But biology doesn't have to make sense.

 

Today was my ad libidum intake day. I decided to just eat whatever I wanted until I felt full. While I ended up consuming a fairly wide range of foods, the bottom line is that I didn't feel satisfied until I hit a whopping 2145 calories! Mind you, I'm not stuffed; I'm only just full. No wonder (1) we have an obesity epidemic, as it would have been even worse, had I consumed junk food until I was full; and (2) conventional salad-based CR is very difficult and not very sustainable for most practitioners. I suppose I'll have to tweak this going forward. Maybe I'll raise my Sunday calorie cap to 1800 or something, and just eat whatever within that.

 

[resveratrol_guy]

Hi All. Following a very positive experience with intranasal NGF, I suffered a minor head injury last Friday night, and have been recovering since. I thought I would share with you my therapeutic regimen for that, in case it helps someone at some point in the future. If you're wondering how it occurred, I basically dove into bed in the dark, only to smash the right side of my skull into the CPAP mask that I had carelessly left lying on my pillow. Pure genius!

Initially, while it stung a bit, the pain wasn't significant and I seemed to be OK. But half an hour later, the swelling started, and gradually escalated to the point that I knew this was going to take more than acetaminophen. Here's the regimen that I hacked together on the fly, all of which ultimately originated on Longecity. While you should not consider this as advice, it might help you to organize your thought process if you find yourself confronted with a similar situation, especially when, as in my case, going to the emergency room would be a waste of time and money. OTOH, you could also regard all this as the largest overreaction to a headache in history. In any event, it was a fluid learning experience.

1. I tried to relieve the pain with acetaminophen. (I avoided aspirin because it might inhibit healing of microhemmorages in the BBB.) The hope was that this was a sufficiently minor injury that no further attention would be necessary.

2. After more than an hour of escalating pressure and pain, it was clear that #1 had failed. I wanted to arrest BBB damage as soon as possible, which might otherwise cause cascading neurological effects. Fortunately, I was keeping some Neupogen in reserve for just such an eventuality. So, a few hours after the impact, I injected enough to liberate 5-10M CD34+ cells.

3. I recalled from my readings here that the majority of damage due to a minor head injury is due not to the impact itself, but the ensuing glatamate penumbra around the lesion itself, instigated by outflows from ruptured neurons and exacerbated by inflammatory cytokines. I needed a potent glutamate neutralizer to prevent a mass neuron dieoff which could occur within hours to days. Although I have various reservations about its use for general nootropic purposes, there was no better substance for this purpose, in my view, than honokiol. Unfortunately, I had none on hand, and had to wait until Tuesday to receive it in the mail.

4. Throughout all of this, I avoided the use of a cold pack. This is a debatable decision, as it would have facilitated a reduction in swelling, and therefore relieved circulatory impediments to some extent. However, as I've pointed out before, cold temperatures accelerate phosphotau formation in a manner that may not be completely reversible. Ordinarily, a few hours of cold would not have been a concern, but under the circumstances, I would suppose that my phosphotau formation rate was already in high gear, and I didn't want to accelerate it further. Nevertheless, all this must be weighed against the emergency medicine lesson that cooling the brain during a stroke can save lives and functionality. Then again, beyond the phosphotau threat, I wanted to keep some level of inflammation alive in order to enhance CD34+ cell homing to the injury site. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well, waiting all the while for the sun to rise so I could hit the local health supplement store.

5. While awaiting honokiol, I had to resort to stopgap measures to protect neurons in the penumbra from excitotoxicity. Apart from a quick dose of Longvida, I turned to 325 mg grape seed extract, which was the best I could muster from the store on Saturday morning. That, and about 5g of resveratrol, for what little help it might have offered. I also consumed a large coffee for the caffeine, which would relieve swelling by modestly constricting and thus shrinking the cerebral blood vessels, rather than by thermal shrinkage of the entire surrounding tissue. (Predictably, it worked, which is why caffeine is one of the active ingredients in various headache medications.)

6. I needed to clamp down on phosphotau production, and hopefully dissolve some existing such plaque burden, in order to compensate for the lost circuitry by enhancing other areas of the brain. For this purpose, I turned to about 500 mg per day of pterostilbene (a potentially hypoglycemic dose!) because it dissolves tau oligomers better than any other substance I'm aware of. In fact, my dose is probably excessive for this purpose, if we extrapolate from the rodent dose (170 mg per kg of food). Here is the summary which is uninformative and the full text courtesy of APBT. See Figure 4A, PHF (phosporylated tau) and Tau 5 (healthy tau) vs. SAMP8 controls.

7. Based on the extensive body of research presented by Lostfalco, I decided to start LLLT. I had acquired an infrared security camera field illuminator some time ago, but was keeping it in reserve for future therapy. But with this new exigency, I determined it appropriate to begin immediately. So with the help of some CoQ10 and PQQ that he recommended, which I was lucky enough to acquire from the store, I did my first session. The result was clear evidence of a warm head. Nothing more than that. Nevertheless, I've grown content, based on the massive weight of evidence, with the bizarre notion that doing so somehow supercharges neuronal mitochondria, even though I couldn't help but laugh at the parallels to tinfoil hat techniques. And yes, I've been careful to follow his advice about exposure limitations and alternating days.

8. I knew that the injury itself, moreover in the presence of a fleet of rapidly differentiating CD34s, most of which destined to become white blood cells within a matter of days, would require enhanced immune function to clean up the mess. To that end, in addition to my juice-and-egg diet, I doubled my c60oo dose for a few days to 12 mg. I also continued to take my usual zinc gluconate supplement at roughly 25 mg/d.

9. When the honokiol arrived (LiftMode), I took a scoop with water. (It's from China, so maybe the Swanson stuff is better.) It has all the gustatory appeal of unvarnished antique woodwork. In combination with naturally cooccurring magnolol, it constitutes a cross between a sleep aid and a benzodiazepine, yet enhances neurite outgrowth and protects neurons from glutamate while activating SIRT3 and protecting the body from cancer -- a double-edged sword indeed, which is described in detail on the aforelinked thread. I don't intend to remain on it for more than a few weeks. At this point, given that the headache has finally passed, I'm still taking it in order to clear out some tumor cells, just out of general prudence, while in this calorically restricted state and under circumstances in which I was compelled to initiate dosing for another reason. Given all the othe anticancer compounds that I'm ingesting mainly for their neurological benefits, the thought has crossed my mind that I should execute a dasatinib/quercetin senescent cell clearance protocol as the coup de grace. OTOH, there are obvious hazards to annihilating only most tumor cells.

10. Last but not least, I started taking 100 mg/d of this oxaloacetate. (Thank you, Bryan_S!) I'm mostly convinced at this point that it's the most potent healthful substance which one can possible supplement, apart from basic nutritional requirements -- better even than c60oo. I think the community missed the ball on this when it was released circa 2009, probably because it creates changes over a few months, which in rodents culminates in 99% of the epigenetic changes which result from caloric restriction -- despite a full caloric intake. But this is no "rat study" miracle. It exhibited dramatic impacts on human type 2 diabetes way back in the 1960s! Have a look at this video podcast starting at 5:50.

So now that the headache and its attendant brain fog are gone, it's time for me to get on with my mental improvement process...
 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 02 September 2015 - 11:17 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I haven't played Lumosity or Cambridge Brain Sciences for quite a while, so I thought I'd give them a test. I played a whole bunch of games which I had played before. I made a new #4 and a new #5 on Lumosity, but that's not particularly remarkable, although it's decent considering that I haven't played in a month or two. And then I made #1 on Pinball Recall. And then, I did again just to make sure it wasn't a fluke (see attached). It was the only game I played twice. But in Memory Matrix, I didn't hit the top 5.

 

By the way, this is the first time I "just played" in order to find out whether anything stuck out, as opposed to doing the prescribed 5-game workout. Everything else was in line with my established scoring ranges.

 

Considering that I've played Pinball Recall probably 100 times or more, and haven't made top 5 since March, it seems like this data is trying to tell me something, although it's strange that this particular circuit should benefit, while otherwise, things seem to be at their typical scores. Although I've been taking my shiitake-maitake again, I distinctly remember skipping it this morning. So maybe it's the NGF or ashitaba chalcone I've been taking, as discussed in the NGF Spray thread. Or maybe something else.

 

The only thing I can say is that it was easy to "see" the pinball bouncing around the bumpers in my mind. I'm not sure what that means, in practice. Maybe it's a spatial navigation indicator.

 

For the record, I'm about 69 kg now, which is very thin indeed. I don't plan to drop any more weight, but I'm still averaging about 1400 calories/d, or perhaps 1500 when my supplements are included (basically, 25-30% caloric restriction). I feel great, and I'm very alert but not in an anxious way.

 

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[resveratrol_guy]

I've had such pleasing results with caloric restriction that I think it would be worth an illustration of just how practical it can be -- seriously. It's not the hunger hell that you might imagine, even though I do get hungry; as long as I eat sufficient nutrition, the meal satisfaction more than makes up for the occasional hunger pangs. So my thinking has changed. I'm mostly in favor of extending this experiment indefinitely, well beyond my next blood tests in November. (I haven't posted my "before" data yet, but I have it on file and will dump it all at once with the "after" data.) Please don't forget: you cannot crash into CR. It takes a month, and by some accounts 6, to ease into it. Any faster, and you risk life-threatening complications. The same applies, and probably more strictly, to CR exit back to full calories.

 

Now, first of all, I've actually saved a lot of time and money by purchasing fruit and vegetable juices on sale from my local grocery store. The sales seems to rotate around to whatever is expiring next, so I get quite a variety. And in my stereotypically American town, vegetable juice isn't very popular, so I get some great discounts.

 

Secondly, when in "real food withdrawal", a buffet salad bar place can be a great way to actually eat like it's the holidays, yet not break out of CR. Specifically, I spent just $13 yesterday and ended up eating for about an hour around noon. I front loaded with 3 plates of salad before loading up on soup, butter, and yes, a few muffins and chunks of whole-grain bread. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to eat the junk food mixed in with the greens, so as to prevent an energy crash the day after; I didn't do this because I wanted to guarantee some minimal level of nutrition. The butter, by the way, is really essential to minimizing that energy crash, and probably should be consumed toward the end of the meal in order to allow insulin to mop up most of the sugar in as short a time as possible. (Coconut oil or olive oil would have been better, but they didn't have either.) And I definitely recommend eating the soup with a fork, so as to leave most of the chemical goop (MSG, seed oils, etc.) behind. Anyway, I haven't eaten since, apart from the incidental amount of calories in my daily supplements. Tomorrow will probably be a usual 1400-calorie juice day, but we'll see.

 

In other words, intermittant fasting can save you a lot of time (shopping, driving to the store, preparing food, etc.) and money (at the right buffet place). A lot of purists will get bent out of shape at this concept because buffet food contains pesticides, heavy metals, and some artificial ingredients, which are no doubt harmful with chronic exposure. But this needs to be weighed against the economic and productivity advantages of the buffet method, not to mention the high satisfaction of looking forward to and experiencing an unrestricted gastronomic experience. I think the science shows that, once basic nutritional needs are satisfied (and they must be satisfied, hence the salads with sufficient protein, plus vitamin pills as needed), it's overwhelmingly a caloric story. Trace amounts of chemical pollution are bad, but generally not nearly as bad as eating a full-calorie organic diet. And with the money I save by eating this way, I will have more left over for supplements to stall disease processes. Not that I'm in favor of industrialized farming, but let's face it, the world does not have enough clean arable land to permit everyone to eat organically, let alone an organic juice diet. So I'm a realist; this is also reflected in my preference for cheap inferior grocery store juices over expensive idealistic homemade ones. That said, the major disadvantage of the buffet strategy is that one can't easily count calories, but I've gotten to the point, metabolically, that I sort of know when to say when. I do eat until I'm moderately overstuffed, and I rely on my waistline to tell me if I'm overeating or undereating.

 

In the end, I had 4 plates piled high with salad somewhat adulterated with various dressings, 2 bowls of soup, a sweet potato, and 5 servings of junk carbs, along with a large serving of butter, the aftermath of which you can see in the photo. (Note especially the residual soup broth, a rich source of toxins which I left behind intentionally.) I think I ate more than any of the fat people around me, although most of them seemed to be eating mostly crap with a vegetable or two on the side. That said, it's cool to be able to eat like this and still maintain a 79-cm waist at 188 cm height.

 

I'm a bit hungry at the moment, but more just thankful to have such profound simple joys in life! I'm going to go do some chores or something so I don't need to think about food. Bon apetit!

 

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Edited by resveratrol_guy, 09 October 2015 - 02:22 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

My age spot has started to dry up like a scab. In between the brown areas, you can see normal skin intruding, along with dead white flakes which are peeling off. (I used a better camera this time, for improved color sensitivity and resolution.) This started happening in earnest in the last week or so. The only changes to my regimen in the past couple weeks have been the addition of 20 mL ashitaba chalcones daily, and 200 mg/d of magnolia extract standardized to 90% honokiol (as opposed to merely magnolia bark containing honokiol). The lesion size has not changed. I used a 2007 dime.

 

I'm tempted to just peel it off, but I've refrained thus far from picking at it, or treating it any differently than the rest of my arm with respect to sun lotion, etc.

 

 

Attached Files

•  spot0.jpg   68.13KB   3 downloads
•  spot1.jpg   100.56KB   3 downloads

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 15 October 2015 - 03:51 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I figured I should take another shot of this age spot before it disappears altogether. Same dime, same camera, same light. It has lost about 70% of its area, as you can see relative to the "BER" letters above.

 

I paused the honokiol several days ago, but the destruction continued unabated. So my top suspect is ashitaba chalcone (20 mL/d), followed by pterostilbene (roughly 300 mg/d, lately). The former is more correlated with the timing. But you know how it is: these sorts of phenomena are hard to isolate.

 

I should note that I'm still calorically restricted. Perhaps this is all just a delayed effect of that. It all runs together!

Attached Files

•  spot4.jpg   77.44KB   6 downloads

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 22 October 2015 - 04:09 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

...all that's left is a faint pink "ghost" of where the brownish red age spot used to be. Meanwhile, my scar seems to be unchanged. I guess age spots are in some way more mutated than scar tissue.

 

That concludes this experiment in localized rejuvenation

Attached Files

•  spot6.jpg   69.02KB   4 downloads

[hamishm00]

impressive

[resveratrol_guy]

Just a quick word of warning to any of you who would follow me down the path of caloric restriction: weigh yourself frequently. I was so used to being 69 kg that I got lazy and stopped doing so. But this morning I found that I'd rapidly slid down to 65 kg, which is into the danger zone. I have no padding against injury or infectious disease, and my ribs are showing prominently. Fortunately, I live in America, where weight loss is easily cured. In an emergency, I can just call an ambulance and have them drop me at the nearest pizza restaurant...

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 01 November 2015 - 12:45 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I was hoping to release my blood tests by now, showing exactly what 3 months on high sugar but low calories and high phytochemicals does to one's various plasma parameters. But I can't because I needed to gain weight in preparation for a major surgery on Tuesday, so since my last post, I've been intentionally overeating. (I now weigh 71 kg, courtesy of a few emergency burrito transfusions.) I had an opportunity to do it much sooner than originally anticipated, so I jumped at it. Fortunately, a side effect of the procedure is that I'll be virtually forced back onto a juice diet for weeks afterward, so I should be able to provide the data that I'd originally intended to publish by the end of this year.

 

[resveratrol_guy]

So I had the surgery, and I'm slowly recovering. In particular, it was jaw surgery, which has left me with plenty of metal plates in my skull and the inability to eat solid food for next month. This was done to cure sleep apnea in a procedure called "maxillomandibular advancement". It's been rough, but my sleep quality has really started to turn a corner. I have a feeling, ultimately, that I will regret not having done this years earlier, which might have been just enough to prevent my stroke in the first place. Despite my desires, my weight has fallen to 64 kg. At my height of 187 cm, this is well into the red zone where the incremental benefits of slightly more caloric restriction are outweighed by the risks of mechanical injury and infectious disease. So I need to gain weight by any means necessary. Needless to say, this is not the best situation under which to assess the impact of a calorically restricted juice diet on a normal healthy individual. So while I'll share my blood tests after I take them at the end of this year, I'm not sure how much use they might be with respect to answering this question. Nevertheless it's obviously an important question, and one that others and myself should revisit in the future. I think it's easy to get caught up in the black-and-white argument of SAD-diet-vs-low-carb, preoccupying ourselves will established macronutrient science to the neglect of important considerations such as total caloric intake and phytochemicals.

 

 

For the record, I ran out of liquid chalcone several weeks ago, and I ended up losing some NGF to physical decay, simply because the surgery ended up being scheduled much sooner than expected, and the last thing I wanted to do was to mix NGF with CT scan radiation, or inadvertently enhance my ability to sense pain.

 

[sthira]

Isn't a height of 184 cm and a weight of 64 kg a healthy BMI of 18.3? You're thin but maybe that's your body's natural set point? I wouldn't say you're "well into the red-zone" of CR based only on body weight. CR is more about calories than body weight. Some of us are just naturally thinner, but I don't think that's what defines calorie restriction.

[resveratrol_guy]

Isn't a height of 184 cm and a weight of 64 kg a healthy BMI of 18.3? You're thin but maybe that's your body's natural set point? I wouldn't say you're "well into the red-zone" of CR based only on body weight. CR is more about calories than body weight. Some of us are just naturally thinner, but I don't think that's what defines calorie restriction.

 

It's 187 cm, but your point still applies. So my problem isn't so much with caloric intake, as macronutrient composition: I've been on high sugar, low fat, low protein CR, which is not the conventional variety. Actually, I've probably been a few grams/d protein defficient, on average, for a few months now. As a result, the catexia has been much more pronounced than it would have, had I eaten a conventional "healthy" diet with as many calories. Granted, this was by design: I wanted to push autophagy very hard in order to recycle senile plaques for desperately needed structural protein.

 

I'm not sure what my BMI is. All I know is that my ribs are prominent and my muscle is minimal.

 

In any event, you're correct that body weight does not define CR. You can be in CR while obese, if you're consuming low calories and spending most of your time in lipolysis. The problem here is that body weight does have certain survival implications having nothing to do with metabolic stability or biological age. In particular, in the relative absence of muscle and fat alike, the probability of death due to accidents or infectious disease becomes significant in my current state, to such an extent that I would probably be better off increasing IGF1 and protein intake a bit, in order to return to 70+ kg. The same exact 1400 calories/d, but with more protein, could in principal allow me to stay at, say, 72 kg with reasonable musculature. Maybe I would need 1500 or 1600 calories, but given that the benefits of CR are diminishing returns, I wouldn't be giving up much by way of metabolic health.

 

NOTE: My stated calories never include supplements, which probably add up to as much as 100 calories/d.

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 04 December 2015 - 05:27 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

At a few weeks postsurgery, things are going quite well indeed. It seems that sleep apnea was harming me in ways that I had not realized, and which were not corrected with CPAP. (CPAP supplies oxygen reliably, but at the expense of causing profound sleep disturbance, aerophasia (inappropriate aeration of the alimentary canal), auditory noise, and exposure to various VOCs.) I already regret not having done this years ago.

 

Anyway, my intention was to return to a CR juice diet after the fact, but unfortunately it's really hard to deal with sugar when you can't brush your teeth due to temporarily impaired jaw opening. (Why didn't I think of that?) So rather than waste the opportunity to do nutty uncontrolled fringe science, I've started a new microtrial: I've gone on a "normal healthy diet" (veggies, eggs, no meat, organic soup, fruit and veggie juices, no gluten or wheat products, etc.) with no CR but with 80-100 g/d of dark chocolate (mostly Endangered Species brand, on account of the reportedly low toxic metal content) and obscene amounts of extra virgin olive oil (as in, veggie burgers fully submerged in the stuff). Blood tests including major inflammatory markers are happening in a couple weeks. I wonder how this will compare to keto...

 

If it's not obvious, I stole this idea from Jean Calment. I've been following the diet since pretty much right after surgery, except that the chocolate was only added about a week ago. So far, all I can say definitively is the following: (1) Multiple measurements at 3 different doctors' offices put my systolic pressure in the range of 108 to 123; a year ago, I was in the range of 122-155. (2) Likewise, my ambient SpO2 while awake has curiously moved up to 99 or 100% vs 97 or 98% since at least 2012; maybe this is measurement noise, but it might also be due to less aerobic resistance resulting from a larger airway diameter. While I suspect these results relate more to the surgery than the diet, the blood tests should have more to say about the latter.

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 21 December 2015 - 02:31 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I double-checked the following measured values for accuracy and coded them by test number (as previously):

1. 1/2/2015 (before GCSF)
2. 1/9/2015 (before GCSF)
3. 1/15/2015 (immediately after collection)
4. 3/6/2015 (after a few weeks of keto diet)
5. 5/28/2015 (after about 3 months of keto diet, out of keto for a week)
6. 8/19/2015 (beginning of caloric restriction)
7. 11/18/2015 (before jaw surgery)
8. 12/31/2015 (after jaw surgery, throat infection, keflex antibiotic, lots of chocolate & olive oil)

HEMATOLOGY

4. cholesterol total 304
8. cholesterol total 200
4. cholesterol HDL 70
8. cholesterol HDL 110
8. cholesterol LDL 78
8. triglycerides 62
1. glucose (fasting) 67
4. glucose (fasting) 66
5. glucose (fasting) 75
6. glucose (fasting) 77
8. glucose (fasting) 86
1. HbA1c 5.3%
4. HbA1c 5.2%
6. HbA1c 5.0%
8. HbA1c 5.2%
4. vitamin D 25-hydroxy by LC-MS/MS 25
5. vitamin D 25-hydroxy, method unreported 39
8. vitamin D 25-hydroxy by LC-MS/MS 51
1. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 9
4. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 8
5. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 7
6. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 7
7. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 6
8. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 6
1. creatinine 0.93
4. creatinine 1.07
5. creatinine 0.93
6. creatinine 0.93
8. creatinine 0.89
1. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 102
4. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 86
5. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 102
6. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 102
8. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 106
7. eCrCl 116
1. sodium 135
4. sodium 139
5. sodium 139
6. sodium 140
7. sodium 142
8. sodium 141
1. potassium 4.2
4. potassium 4.2
5. potassium 3.9
6. potassium 4.2
7. potassium 4.3
8. potassium 4.1
1. chloride 101
4. chloride 98
5. chloride 102
6. chloride 105
8. chloride 105
1. carbon dioxide 21
4. carbon dioxide 24
5. carbon dioxide 21
6. carbon dioxide 25
8. carbon dioxide 24
1. calcium 9.1
4. calcium 9.4
5. calcium 9.4
6. calcium 9.1
8. calcium 9.1
1. protein, total 7.0
4. protein, total 6.9
8. protein, total 6.8
1. albumin 4.2
4. albumin 4.5
8. albumin 4.1
8. globulin 2.7
1. bilirubin, direct 0.2
1. bilirubin, total 1.1
4. bilirubin, total 0.7
8. bilirubin, total 0.4
1. ALP 56
4. ALP 64
8. ALP 87
1. AST 27
4. AST 21
8. AST 21
1. ALT 21
4. ALT 17
8. ALT 17
2. WBC 4.7
3. WBC 36.6
4. WBC 4.7
7. WBC 4.5
8. WBC 4.5
2. RBC 5.21
3. RBC 5.08
4. RBC 5.40
7. RBC 4.54
8. RBC 4.35
2. hemoglobin 16.3
3. hemoglobin 15.9
4. hemoglobin 16.4
7. hemoglobin 14.5
8. hemoglobin 13.3
2. hematocrit 46.6
3. hematocrit 47.4
4. hematocrit 47.7
7. hematocrit 42.8
8. hematocrit 41.3
2. MCV 89
3. MCV 93
4. MCV 88
7. MCV 94.2
8. MCV 95
2. MCH 31.3
3. MCH 31.3
4. MCH 30.4
7. MCH 31.9
8. MCH 30.6
2. MCHC 35.0
3. MCHC 33.5
4. MCHC 34.4
7. MCHC 33.9
8. MCHC 32.2
2. RDW 13.3
3. RDW 13.5
4. RDW 14.0
7. RDW 14.9
8. RDW 14.9
2. platelets 228
3. platelets 216
4. platelets 220
7. platelets 231
8. platelets 251
4. mean platelet volume 9.6
7. mean platelet volume 7.3
8. mean platelet volume 6.6
2. neutrophils 70
3. neutrophils 86
4. neutrophils 64
8. neutrophils 69.6
2. neutrophils, absolute 3.2
3. neutrophils, absolute 30.8
4. neutrophils, absolute 2.99
7. neutrophils, absolute 2.7
8. neutrophils, absolute 3.132
2. lymphs 23
3. lymphs 6
4. lymphs 26
7. lymphs 30.4
8. lymphs 22.2
2. lymphs, absolute 1.1
3. lymphs, absolute 2.4
4. lymphs, absolute 1.2
7. lymphs, absolute 1.4
8. lymphs, absolute 0.999
2. monocytes 7
3. monocytes 8
4. monocytes 8
7. monocytes 7.1
8. monocytes 5.7
2. monocytes, absolute 0.3
3. monocytes, absolute 3.1
4. monocytes, absolute 0.36
7. monocytes, absolute 0.3
8. monocytes, absolute 0.257
2. eosinophils 0
3. eosinophils 0
4. eosinophils 2
8. eosinophils 2.2
4. eosinophils, absolute 0.07
7. eosinophils, absolute 0.0
8. eosinophils, absolute 0.099
2. basophils 0
3. basophils 0
4. basophils 1
8. basophils 0.3
4. basophils, absolute 0.03
7. basophils, absolute 0.0
8. basophils, absolute 0.014
2. immature granulocytes 0
3. immature granulocytes 0
2. immature granulocytes, absolute 0
3. immature granulocytes, absolute 0
3. NRBC 0
4. TSH 1.15
8. TSH 1.33
4. myeloperoxidase by TIA 145
5. myeloperoxidase by TIA 190
4. PSA 0.5
4. testosterone 885
5. uric acid 8.8
5. C-reactive protein (CRP) "< 0.10"
6. C-reactive protein (CRP) 0.4
8. C-reactive protein (CRP) 0.2
6. homocysteine 14.3
8. homocysteine 22.6
5. apolipoprotein A1 169
5. apolipoprotein B 110
5. apolipoprotein B/A1 ratio 0.65

URINALYSIS

4. color: yellow
5. color: yellow
6. color: yellow
6. appearance: clear
4. turbidity: clear
5. turbidity: clear
4. glucose: negative
5. glucose: negative
6. glucose: negative
4. bilirubin: negative
5. bilirubin: negative
6. bilirubin: negative
4. ketones: moderate
5. ketones: "3+"
6. ketones: "trace"
4. specific gravity: 1.020
5. specific gravity: 1.011
6. specific gravity: 1.006
4. hemoglobin: negative
5. occult blood: negative
6. occult blood: negative
4. pH 5.0
5. pH 5.5
6. pH 7.0
4. protein: negative
6. protein: negative
4. urobilinogen: < 2.0
4. nitrite: negative
5. nitrite: negative
6. nitrite: negative
4. leukocyte esterase: negative
5. leukocyte esterase: negative
6. leukocyte esterase: negative
4. WBC: 0-5
5. WBC: 0-5
6. WBC: 0-5
4. RBC: 0-2
5. RBC: 0-2
6. RBC: 0-2
4. squamous epithelial cells: none
5. squamous epithelial cells: none
6. squamous epithelial cells: none
4. hyaline casts: none
5. hyaline casts: none
6. hyaline casts: none
4. calcium oxylate crystals: occasional
5. protein: negative
5. bacteria: none
6. bacteria: none