9 replies to this topic

[platypus]

Hello everyone, this is my first posting on the forum. I'd very much appreciate any and all comments on my regime. [thumb]

Personal data

- Male, 37yo, 179cm/70kg (low bodyfat)
- My diet is mostly healthy with plenty of veggies and fruit, lean meats and nuts and whole grains. I try to avoid sugar and especially sugary drinks but do eat some pasta and white bread.
- For exercise I go to gym (25min interval cardio + weights) or practise Ashtanga yoga ~2.5 times per week. I'm in reasonably good shape and want to have more aerobic & anaerobic capacity + endurance & strength when the next skiing season starts.

Health concerns

- My cholesterol is borderline high due to genetics, HDL is relatively high. I'd like to lower my LDL and take measures to avoid LDL oxidation. I'm currently taking half the recommended dose of LEF Sytrinol for this but I haven't done the bloodwork yet to see if it works. I'm considering starting pomegranate and blueberry in the near future.
- I'm a social drinker & smoker. I might smoke 5-10 cigarettes during a night out, otherwise I never smoke. I'd like to minimize the damage I'm doing to myself with alcohol & tobacco. I take LEF NAC 600mg + 1 gram of vit-C the next morning to help with cleaning of my lungs. What cancer-prevention supplements would you recommend?

Misc issues

- I have some trouble with wanting to go to sleep in the evening at the appropriate time. I'm an evening-person and would benefit from a 28-hour day, I think. I dropped Rhodiola as I think it made this tendency worse. I would also cut down on caffeine if I found better cognitive enhancers that would also increase my ability to concentrate on one task. I'm experimenting with Modafinil and while it definetely works, I don't think I'd like to take it daily. Any other ideas?
- I have some problems with foot-cramps during long exercise sessions. Gatorade. seems to help with this. Do I have a magnesium/potassium deficiency?

My current Supplement Regime

Multivitamins:
LEF Mix (6 tabs per day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner)
LEF Super Booster (with lunch)

Dietary supplements:
Möller Omega-3 Fish Oil (one tablespoon upon awakening)
Kyolic Extra Strangth Aged Garlic Extract 600mg (one capsule a day, usually before going to bed)

Cholesterol control:
LEF Sytrinol 150mg (one softgel per day)

Antioxidants:
LEF Sodzyme with Glisodin & Wolfberry (3 caps upon awakening, 4-5 caps if going to spend time in the sun (going to the beach etc.))
LEF Super-absorbable CoQ10 with d-Limonene 30mg (one softgel with lunch)
Timed-release vit-C (500-1000mg a day)
Melatonin (~1.5mg before sleep most nights)

Adaptogens:
LEF Optimized Ashwagandha Extract 125mg (one capsule upon awakening, one capsule in the evening)
LEF Rhodiola Extract 250mg (currently discontinued, I think it made me lose the desire to go to sleep, will possibly use it with sports/exercise as needed)

Cognitive enhancers:
Coffee (one cup in the morning, I'm thinking of cutting this out as it might interfere with my sleep)
LEF Ginkgo Biloba Certified Extract 120mg (one capsule every workday with breakfast)
LEF Vinpocetine 5mg (one tablet with breakfast & lunch on most workdays)
Lecithin granules (1 heaping tablespoon on some days)
Modafinil (generic, 100-200mg only on very important workdays (this stuff works!))

Functional foods:
Powdered Japanese Green tea (Matcha, one cup in the morning of every working day - I love this stuff!)
Green & White tea (~2 mugs every working day)
Mix of Green & Red Rooibos tea (~1 mug every working day)
Almonds or walnuts with fruit as snacks during workdays
Xylitol chewing gum after meals

With exercise:
LEF Daytime Growth Hormone Formula (7 caps before exercise)
Whey-based protein or recovery drink (after exercise)

Questions:

- I notice people critique the LEF multivitamins. I'm currently on 2/3 of the recommended dosage of the LEF Mix + one LEF Super Booster. Do you see problems/dangers with this?
- Is the dose of Garlic too low to be useful at all?
- Should I take more CoQ10? It's quite pricey.
- Do growth hormone releasers work? (in this case a LEF formula with L-Ornithine, L-Tyrosine, vit-C & B6?)
- I'm thinking of starting LEF Blueberry Extract with Pomegranate for cardiovascular support, what do you think?
- On working days I get 240mg of Ginkgo, is it safe to combine it with 5-10mg of Vinpocetine?
- What do you think about Piracetam?
- Should I take more minerals like magnesium, calcium & potassium?
- I'm interested in resveratrol but the price seems quite high still (I need an European supplier, which is why I use LEF heavily).

Edited by platypus, 01 July 2007 - 04:23 PM.

[krillin]

Vitamin A's too high. I'd only take it if I had blood tests confirming optimal vitamin D status.
Too much alpha tocopherol for my taste.
Niacinamide is like anti-resveratrol. Inositol hexanicotinate isn't, and is also flush-free.
Their B12 choice is baffling. Hydroxocobalamin is quite unstable. At acidic pH it is converted to aquocobalamin, which can be destroyed by vitamin C.
Their selenium contains obsolete versions. Why don't they make it all SeMC?
Green tea decreases mineral absorption. Take away from food and minerals.

I take one of those 600 mg Kyolics too. I also take 500 mg of Pure Gar. (Different chemicals.)

Aim for minimum 400 mg magnesium and maximum 700 mg calcium. Potassium supplements are homeopathic. Get it from fruits and vegetables.

[niner]

I'd try to chill on the cigarettes, but if that isn't in the cards, I might add some alpha lipoic acid.

[platypus]

I get 3300IU of vit A from my 2/3 dose of the LEF mix, is excessive is that really? It should be 66% of "Daily Value" according to the container, but they don't say what that recommendation is based on (RDA?). The combined dose (together with the LEF Super Booster) for selenium is 333mcg, hopefully that's enough and not too much. The vit-E dose is more difficult to figure out but is approximately 300mg of alpha-tocopherol, 230mg of gamma-tocopherol and 110mg of delta-tocopherol.

I get only 155mg of calcium, 266mg of magnesium and 25mg of potassium from my supplements. I guess I could add a combined calcium-magnesium supplement to my mix. I've been drinking green tea after meals for more than a decade, I don't think I'm going to stop now. Without bloodwork it's difficult to know if I have some mineral-deficiencies.

Does the Pure Gar stink?

What's the reasoning behind adding alpha-lipoic-acid? I'm trying to quit the social smoking. Normally cigarettes disgust me but after a few drinks I start to crave them, I guess my nervous system is addicted to the combination. One possibility would be to stop drinking alcohol altogether, but I don't really want to do that at the moment. [wis]

[niner]

What's the reasoning behind adding alpha-lipoic-acid? I'm trying to quit the social smoking. Normally cigarettes disgust me but after a few drinks I start to crave them, I guess my nervous system is addicted to the combination. One possibility would be to stop drinking alcohol altogether, but I don't really want to do that at the moment.

My thinking was that it would help knock down some of the oxidative damage from the smoking. I also recently read something about resveratrol being good for tobacco damage, but now I can't find the source. Obviously, quitting smoking would be the hot setup, but I know about the drinking leading to smoking thing. I've been there. And quitting drinking is an extreme step for a lot of people, been there too.

Whatever you are using to mitigate tobacco damage, I'd take it before as well as after smoking.

[krillin]

The RDA for A for men is 900 mcg (3000 IU). For women it's 700 mcg (2333 IU). I've long since given up trying to figure out what goes through the heads of LEF. The following study found that intakes above 5000 IU were bad for bone density.

Ann Intern Med. 1998 Nov 15;129(10):770-8.
Excessive dietary intake of vitamin A is associated with reduced bone mineral density and increased risk for hip fracture.
Melhus H, Michaëlsson K, Kindmark A, Bergström R, Holmberg L, Mallmin H, Wolk A, Ljunghall S.
University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. Hakan.Melhus@medicin.uu.se

BACKGROUND: The highest incidence of osteoporotic fractures is found in northern Europe, where dietary intake of vitamin A (retinol) is unusually high. In animals, the most common adverse effect of toxic doses of retinol is spontaneous fracture. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether excessive dietary intake of vitamin A is associated with decreased bone mineral density and increased risk for hip fracture. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study and a nested case-control study. SETTING: Two counties in central Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: For the cross-sectional study, 175 women 28 to 74 years of age were randomly selected. For the nested case-control study, 247 women who had a first hip fracture within 2 to 64 months after enrollment and 873 age-matched controls were selected from a mammography study cohort of 66,651 women 40 to 76 years of age. MEASUREMENTS: Retinol intake was estimated from dietary records and a food-frequency questionnaire. Bone mineral density was measured with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Hip fracture was identified by using hospital discharge records and was confirmed by record review. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, retinol intake was negatively associated with bone mineral density. For every 1-mg increase in daily intake of retinol, risk for hip fracture increased by 68% (95% CI, 18% to 140%; P for trend, 0.006). For intake greater than 1.5 mg/d compared with intake less than 0.5 mg/d, bone mineral density was reduced by 10% at the femoral neck (P = 0.05), 14% at the lumbar spine (P = 0.001), and 6% for the total body (P = 0.009) and risk for hip fracture was doubled (odds ratio, 2.1 [CI, 1.1 to 4.0]). CONCLUSION: High dietary intake of retinol seems to be associated with osteoporosis.

PMID: 9841582

To my knowledge, no one's ever tried giving more than 200 mcg selenium in a study. And since the upper limit is 400 mcg, I prefer to stay at 200 mcg of the safest selenium: SeMC.

You should get at least twice as much gamma E as alpha.

Take an average day and calculate total calcium to see if you really need more. It adds up fast.

The inside of a Pure Gar bottle has a garlicky smell, but no one's ever complained about my breath.

[platypus]

Update, added curcumin + blueberry with pomegranate and cocoa and adjusted dosages and timing:

Multivitamins:
LEF Mix (6 tabs per day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner)
LEF Super Booster (with lunch)

Dietary supplements:
Möller Omega-3 Fish Oil (one tablespoon before going to bed)
Kyolic Extra Strength Aged Garlic Extract 600mg (two capsules a day, at lunch & dinner)
LEF Super Curcumin with Bioperine 800mg (one capsule with breakfast)
LEF Blueberry Extract with Pomegranate & Cocoagold (one capsule with breakfast)

Cholesterol control:
LEF Sytrinol 150mg (one softgel per day)

Antioxidants:
LEF Sodzyme with Glisodin & Wolfberry (3 caps upon awakening, 4-5 caps if going to spend time in the sun (going to the beach etc.))
LEF Super-absorbable CoQ10 with d-Limonene 50mg (one softgel with lunch)
Timed-release vit-C (500-1000mg a day)
Melatonin (~1.5mg before sleep most nights)

Adaptogens:
LEF Optimized Ashwagandha Extract 125mg (one capsule upon awakening)
LEF Rhodiola Extract 250mg (currently discontinued, I think it made me lose the desire to go to sleep, will possibly use it with sports/exercise as needed)

Cognitive enhancers:
Coffee (one cup in the morning, I'm thinking of cutting this out as it might interfere with my sleep)
LEF Ginkgo Biloba Certified Extract 120mg (one capsule every workday with breakfast)
LEF Vinpocetine 5mg (one tablet with breakfast & lunch on most workdays)
Lecithin granules (1 heaping tablespoon on some days)
Modafinil (generic, 50-100mg only on very important workdays (this stuff works!))

Functional foods:
Powdered Japanese Green tea (Matcha, one cup in the morning of every working day - I love this stuff!)
Green & White tea (~2 mugs every working day)
Mix of Green & Red Rooibos tea (~1 mug every working day)
Almonds or walnuts with fruit as snacks during workdays
Xylitol chewing gum after meals

With exercise:
LEF Daytime Growth Hormone Formula (9 caps before exercise)
Whey-based protein or recovery drink (after exercise)

[s123]

I'm a social drinker & smoker. I might smoke 5-10 cigarettes during a night out, otherwise I never smoke. I'd like to minimize the damage I'm doing to myself with alcohol & tobacco. I take LEF NAC 600mg + 1 gram of vit-C the next morning to help with cleaning of my lungs. What cancer-prevention supplements would you recommend?

http://ajrccm.atsjou...200709-1398OCv1

Supplemental Multivitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and Folate Does Not Reduce the Risk of Lung Cancer

Rationale: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the US. Although supplements are used by half the population, limited information is available about their specific effect on lung cancer risk. Objective: To explore the association of supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate with incident lung cancer. Methods: Prospective cohort of 77,721 men and women aged 50 - 76 years from Washington State in the VITamins And Lifestyle VITAL study. Cases were identified through the Seattle-Puget Sound SEER cancer registry. Measurements: Hazard ratios (HRs) for incident lung cancer according to 10 year average daily use of supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate. Results: 521 cases of lung cancer were identified. Adjusting for smoking, age, and gender, there was no inverse association with any supplement. Supplemental vitamin E was associated with a small increased risk of lung cancer (HR 1.05 for every 100 mg/day increase in dose, 95% CI, 1.00 - 1.09, P = .033). This risk of supplemental vitamin E was largely confined to current smokers (HR 1.11 for every 100 mg/day increase, 95% CI, 1.03 - 1.19, P <.01) and was greatest for non-small cell lung cancer (HR 1.07 for every 100 mg/day increase, 95% CI, 1.02 - 1.12, P = .004). Conclusions: Supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate were not associated with a decreased risk of lung cancer. Supplemental vitamin E was associated with a small increased risk. Patients should be counseled against using these supplements to prevent lung cancer.

Edited by s123, 09 December 2007 - 07:38 PM.

[sablystone]

I like the fact you're so young and taking such an interest in your long-term health. I'd watch the smoking. I've been there, and it only gets worse trying to quit later. Go check out a cadaver lung that's smoked, disect it, get to know it. I guarantee you'll never smoke again.

[Alien65]

If it's not one thing, it's another http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22199057/

There is probably more of a correlation between eating meat in our society and cancer than smoking.

See my post in this thread

http://www.imminst.o...ing-t19260.html