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workouts, genes, supplements
Posted by
nootrope
,
25 March 2009
·
1,041 views
I haven't updated this in a while. I have lots of news!
1) I got another fitness assessment at the gym. Not as much progress as I'd like. I've obviously been becoming more muscular, as my chest circumference has increased a few inches, but my body fat % has stayed the same at around 15%. My "body age" is 35 years, which would seem good as my actual chronological age is 41, yet my body age was 34 a year ago, so I've aged a year in a year. The trainer advocated changing around my workout routine completely, emphasizing shoulder and back muscles more, and trying "superinterval training" to burn fat. Superinverval training involves moderately easy aerobic activity for a few minutes (I go at 4 miles per hour on the treadmill), followed by a minute or two of all-out sprinting (I go above 10 or 11 miles per hour), repeatedly. It gets my heart rate to 175 beats per minute at maximum, and throughout a 30 minute workout, my heart rate rarely goes below 140 (I have a high base heart rate of 90).
2) I got my results back from 23andme.com. Fascinating!
a) I don't have a super-longevity gene common to those who live to 100
b) No major problems otherwise, and some genes that benefit intelligence
c) I have the version of the MTHFR gene, expressed in 7% of the population, which makes it harder for me to use folic acid. So I bought some folinic acid; I'm going to look into other versions of this and other B vitamins. Who knows, perhaps this genetic knowledge will have a big change on my life!
d) I'm COMT val/val, which lowers my prefrontal dopamine so I don't have as much working memory; in combination with c) above this can cause cognitive problems. I'm considering asking my doctor about adding a COMT inhibitor, or using quercetin (which unfortunately for me has a strange side-effect of making the skin on my hands thin, easily bruised, and a pulpy mess!)
e) I don't have the bipolar genes 23andme.com discuss in their research reports; however, there are hundreds of such candidate genes. I wonder if I may be somewhere else on the schizoaffective continuum than pure bipolar, or whether perhaps the genes in c) and d) have caused cognitive problems.
3) Changes to my supplement routine
I'm taking ashwagandha now only once daily
I've added medicinal mushrooms, which I think are under-appreciated on some of these forums: reishi, which is calming and acts synergistically with green tea to prevent cancer, and cordyceps, which helps with working out at the gym
I've had a swollen lymph node in my neck for a couple of years, and I've become determined to use natural supplements to reduce it (my doctor said it wasn't a serious problem): red root and cleavers have been working slowly but surely
I'm trying astragalus for its general adaptogenic effects as well as the possibility that it could lengthen telomeres
And of course now I'm taking folinic acid, 800 mcg daily
1) I got another fitness assessment at the gym. Not as much progress as I'd like. I've obviously been becoming more muscular, as my chest circumference has increased a few inches, but my body fat % has stayed the same at around 15%. My "body age" is 35 years, which would seem good as my actual chronological age is 41, yet my body age was 34 a year ago, so I've aged a year in a year. The trainer advocated changing around my workout routine completely, emphasizing shoulder and back muscles more, and trying "superinterval training" to burn fat. Superinverval training involves moderately easy aerobic activity for a few minutes (I go at 4 miles per hour on the treadmill), followed by a minute or two of all-out sprinting (I go above 10 or 11 miles per hour), repeatedly. It gets my heart rate to 175 beats per minute at maximum, and throughout a 30 minute workout, my heart rate rarely goes below 140 (I have a high base heart rate of 90).
2) I got my results back from 23andme.com. Fascinating!
a) I don't have a super-longevity gene common to those who live to 100
b) No major problems otherwise, and some genes that benefit intelligence
c) I have the version of the MTHFR gene, expressed in 7% of the population, which makes it harder for me to use folic acid. So I bought some folinic acid; I'm going to look into other versions of this and other B vitamins. Who knows, perhaps this genetic knowledge will have a big change on my life!
d) I'm COMT val/val, which lowers my prefrontal dopamine so I don't have as much working memory; in combination with c) above this can cause cognitive problems. I'm considering asking my doctor about adding a COMT inhibitor, or using quercetin (which unfortunately for me has a strange side-effect of making the skin on my hands thin, easily bruised, and a pulpy mess!)
e) I don't have the bipolar genes 23andme.com discuss in their research reports; however, there are hundreds of such candidate genes. I wonder if I may be somewhere else on the schizoaffective continuum than pure bipolar, or whether perhaps the genes in c) and d) have caused cognitive problems.
3) Changes to my supplement routine
I'm taking ashwagandha now only once daily
I've added medicinal mushrooms, which I think are under-appreciated on some of these forums: reishi, which is calming and acts synergistically with green tea to prevent cancer, and cordyceps, which helps with working out at the gym
I've had a swollen lymph node in my neck for a couple of years, and I've become determined to use natural supplements to reduce it (my doctor said it wasn't a serious problem): red root and cleavers have been working slowly but surely
I'm trying astragalus for its general adaptogenic effects as well as the possibility that it could lengthen telomeres
And of course now I'm taking folinic acid, 800 mcg daily
