234 replies to this topic

[ceridwen]

Having been tested for it. I think that I shall be supplemented to the right amount rather than trying to do this myself where I might have taken too much. I am very wary of supplementing zinc without help

[resveratrol_guy]

Yes, zinc is one of those trace minerals with a very narrow band of healthful intake. (How did we evolve to be so sensitive? Perhaps because most of us lived in coastal areas, and ate oysters at a fairly stable rate.) Sorry but I know nothing about how to measure plasma zinc vs. adipose zinc vs. cerebral zinc. Personally I'm going to try to calibrate my dose the old fashioned way -- by how I feel.

 

As to Longvida, I'm definitely going to do that next, so the next stem cells to arrive won't have to deal with so much garbage.

 

DEFINITELY see the video that I linked in this post before you leap to stem cells as the only solution to your cognitive problems.

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 06 March 2015 - 04:30 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

My lung volume seems to have increased by a statistically significant amount vs. 2012. Data is here.

[resveratrol_guy]

Blood pressure in the doctor's office is now 130s/80s, compared to 150s/80s on sertraline, or 170s/90s prior to starting sertraline. (All these pressures were obtained by manual measurement, while I was seated and rather nervous about the results.) The first number was cross-checked for accuracy against an automated machine several minutes later, which read 122/80.

 

So while I'm not going to set any world records for cardiovascular health here, this unexplained change is welcome, and consistent with my values at age 25.

 

I suppose it's mostly down to ketogenic diet, but don't know. That would be particularly interesting because, as recommended, I've increased my sodium intake relative to before starting it.

 

[resveratrol_guy]

This is electrifying! So this is what it feels like to have a brain! I highly recommend the experience if you can find a good one for sale.

I couldn't sleep. I don't know what's happening to me. I remember more about my day, photographically, than I probably ever remembered about any day. As soon as I lay down to sleep, the images and sensations started bombarding me. I saw the chores I did, the videos I watched, the food I prepared, and even the accounting forms I filled out. I looked at several of the accounting fields in my head, and wrote down every integer I saw. None of them were familiar numbers, such as my own account ID or the date. Most were various gains and losses that just arose haphazardly on this particular form. I checked the numbers afterward. 36 of 39 digits, in the aggregate, turned out to be correct, even though I had made no effort to memorize them (why would I care?). No digits were transposed.

I tried to think back on my day, grasping for that one moment when someone had pushed the "record" button -- even though the "play" button didn't get pressed until about an hour ago, for some reason. I know I got up early this past morning, but then returned to sleep on account of a headache. I awoke again a few hours later. It's all groggy until shortly thereafter. The first image in my head is a little pink pill -- 5000 ug of methylcobalamin (first dose). There it is, if only you could see it, clear as day in my mind. I chewed it. Then I remember taking 500 mg of niacin (first dose), along with my normal vitamin pill, quercetin, 1000 IU vitamin D, and vitamin K2. Then I felt some tingling in my forehead, which rapidly erupted into an awful sunburnlike niacin flush reaction. Not to worry, it's innocuous! Then, a while later, I downed about 50 mg of pterostilbene and exactly 50 mg of zinc gluconate (my first dose since last I mentioned it) stirred into a horribly bitter hot cacao drink. I don't think there's any evidence that any of these supplements in isolation could have accomplished this, but something synergistic must have occurred. As usual, coconut oil and butter filled most of my calories. (I look forward to my next meal the way that most people look forward to filing their taxes: it should be very comforting to be done with it!)

 

Apart from the aforementioned fat, I ate eggs, chicken, mussels, sharp cheddar, a small box of blueberries, a mug of green tea, 2 celery plants, a bit of vegetable soup, and a couple squares of 93% dark chocolate today -- really nothing out of the ordinary, save for a missing spoonful of wheatgerm. This was seasoned with varying amounts of oregano, paprika, tumeric, dried onions, and cumin. (Spices make eating possible!)

 

For some reason, I'm able to type again, right now as write this, like I could when I was 20. My fingers know right where the keys are, and don't slide around bumping into wrong ones all the time, as they have for a very long while now. I only just noticed this now, as I type. It's... surreal.

I don't know what happened. I will be stupid again in the morning. But it was wonderful to have this interlude. And before I forget, thank you Turnbuckle! (I have yet to add the niacinamide, to say nothing of Longvida. And I still haven't restarted c60oo or mushrooms.)
 

To be continued (I hope)...

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 09 March 2015 - 05:56 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I started nicotinamide 500 mg today. Also, just an hour ago, I took my first 400 mg Longvida capsule. I had a headache all afternoon, thanks to some paint fumes, but it has subsided from about a 4/10 pain to 1/10. So at least this stuff might make a safer and more effective substitute for treating minor aches and pains, vs. NSAIDs. I haven't noticed any other changes, cognitive or otherwise.

[resveratrol_guy]

Oops... I think I hit the wrong receptor somewhere. My tactile memory is suddenly razor sharp, as of yesterday. (This started off as a dream of riding my bike back in 1983, with vivid recall of the tactile sensations.) That's not exactly what I was striving for, but I suppose it's a side effect of the Longvida. Now, if only I could leverage tactile memory to encode my grocery list...

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 13 March 2015 - 02:34 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

I had another great day yesterday, most noticeable about 8 hours after taking 50 mg zinc gluconate for the first time since last mentioned. Apart from what I wrote above, I really can't explain why it helps. But it's not placebo, because by the time the benefits hit me, it's hours after dosing, so I have to deconstruct my day in order to realize that I had zinc.

 

On the plus side, my situational memory (why I walked into a room, where I put my keys, remembering to turn on the car lights at dusk, etc.) is excellent and much better than pre-Longvida. As are word recall, conversational fluidity, and tactile recall. I still make careless mistakes, like trying to open my front door with my back door key, but if I actually pay attention and try to recall facts, words, or my todo list, my hit rate is unmistakably higher with lower latency.

 

But on the minus side, my visual memory has gone to crap just as rapidly. It's so bad that I had to eat a cup of mushrooms this morning just so I could get my software work done. Lumosity is extremely unimpressed with me in this specific regard at the moment. I figured that this must be due to curcumin downregulating dopamine. But that's probably not true. (If that study is any guide, then I need to increase my Longvida intake in order to increase dopamine, as opposed to only seratonin. But one thing at a time.) The only thing I've noticed is that my sleep has been quite shallow recently, on account of my brain failing to shut down in a timely manner. Nevertheless, I wake up crisp and without brain fog apart from this persistent issue. It may be that my ketogenic diet in combination with nicotinamide (read: time-release NAD+) is overdriving my brain and burning up all the dopamine, so as of today I'm halting the nicotinamide until further notice (which my liver will no doubt appreciate, if you read Wiki); I will still take 500 mg/d niacin and one 400 mg Longvida while I continue in my usual level of ketosis.

 

Underscoring the dopamine issue is that math is starting to feel like a chore instead of an addiction. Not good. I really must get to the bottom of this ASAP.

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 15 March 2015 - 03:21 PM.

[ceridwen]

I think you should look at Epigenetic Therapy this would carefully pinpoint and balance many different and perhaps competing things going on in your body balance and stop decline. Then you would know what is out of balance and be more likely to be able to correct it. Are you methylating properly?  I think you need another blood panel taken. A good functional medicine practitioner can test for food senstitivities too. Perhaps you need outside help and a professional can give a considered second opinion. I am waiting for the results of my blood tests. They are taking their time though.

[ceridwen]

I definitely recommend Melatonin for your sleep problem and this book Alzheimers Treatments That Actually Worked In Small Studies by Jeff T Bowles. That is the best thing I've read on how to take Melatonin which is so important for the sleep cycle which is so important for prevention

[resveratrol_guy]

I definitely recommend Melatonin for your sleep problem and this book Alzheimers Treatments That Actually Worked In Small Studies by Jeff T Bowles. That is the best thing I've read on how to take Melatonin which is so important for the sleep cycle which is so important for prevention

 

Apparently the dosing requires some level of calibration, but this is a good idea to research and probably try. I will append it to the list. Thanks.

 

As to food sensitivities, I think too much money has been made on this sort of paranoia by pseudoscientific doctors. Not that it's complete nonsense, but it's expensive advice which isn't likely to make a lot of difference, above and beyond what we can observe through our own response to various foods, and adjust accordingly. And eating food is a better test than getting one's skin pricked with an allergen; it just requires a spreadsheet with sufficient data. Apparently the worst of these nutcases literally sit there and ask the patient to hold a sample of food while pressing against their hands while they waive a magic stone, in order to assess what it's likely to do in the patient's body. Not that I'm advocating for Big Nanny to protect me from morons, but this is one industry which definitely requires patients to use their common sense.

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 16 March 2015 - 04:05 PM.

[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)

HEMATOLOGY

4. cholesterol total 304 <- Double my usual, kernel size stratification test pending
4. cholesterol HDL 70
1. glucose (fasting) 67
4. glucose (fasting) 66
1. HbA1c 5.3%
4. HbA1c 5.2%
4. vitamin D 25-hydroxy by LC-MS/MS 25 <- even with 1000 IU/d for months!
1. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 9
4. blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 8
1. creatinine 0.93
4. creatinine 1.07 <- YIKES!
1. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 102
4. eGFR nonafrican CKD-EPI 86 <- from creatinine
1. sodium 135
4. sodium 139
1. potassium 4.2
4. potassium 4.2
1. chloride 101
4. chloride 98
1. carbon dioxide 21
4. carbon dioxide 24
1. calcium 9.1
4. calcium 9.4
1. protein, total 7.0
4. protein, total 6.9
1. albumin 4.2
4. albumin 4.5
1. bilirubin, total 1.1
4. bilirubin, total 0.7
1. bilirubin, direct 0.2
1. ALP 56
4. ALP 64
1. AST 27
4. AST 21
1. ALT 21
4. ALT 17
2. WBC 4.7
3. WBC 36.6
4. WBC 4.7 <- back to baseline
2. RBC 5.21
3. RBC 5.08
4. RBC 5.40
2. hemoglobin 16.3
3. hemoglobin 15.9
4. hemoglobin 16.4
2. hematocrit 46.6
3. hematocrit 47.4
4. hematocrit 47.7
2. MCV 89
3. MCV 93
4. MCV 88
2. MCH 31.3
3. MCH 31.3
4. MCH 30.4
2. MCHC 35.0
3. MCHC 33.5
4. MCHC 34.4
2. RDW 13.3
3. RDW 13.5
4. RDW 14.0
2. platelets 228
3. platelets 216
4. platelets 220
4. mean platelet volume 9.6
2. neutrophils 70
3. neutrophils 86
4. neutrophils 64
2. neutrophils, absolute 3.2
3. neutrophils, absolute 30.8
4. neutrophils, absolute 2.99
2. lymphs 23
3. lymphs 6
4. lymphs 26
2. lymphs, absolute 1.1
3. lymphs, absolute 2.4
4. lymphs, absolute 1.2
2. monocytes 7
3. monocytes 8
4. monocytes 8
2. monocytes, absolute 0.3
3. monocytes, absolute 3.1
4. monocytes, absolute 0.36
2. eosinophils 0
3. eosinophils 0
4. eosinophils 2
4. eosinophils, absolute 0.07
2. basophils 0
3. basophils 0
4. basophils 1
4. basophils, absolute 0.03
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
4. myeloperoxidase by TIA 145 <- low atherosclerotic aggregation
4. PSA 0.5
4. testosterone 885 <- normal 250-827

URINALYSIS

4. color: yellow
4. turbidity: clear
4. glucose: negative
4. bilirubin: negative
4. ketones: moderate <- YAY!
4. specific gravity: 1.020
4. hemoglobin: negative
4. pH 5.0
4. protein: negative
4. urobilinogen: < 2.0
4. nitrite: negative
4. leukocyte esterase: negative
4. WBC: 0-5
4. RBC: 0-2
4. squamous epithelial cells: none
4. hyaline casts: none
4. calcium oxylate crystals: occasional <- too many cruciferous veggies?
 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 21 March 2015 - 03:40 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

So first of all, my Neostem CD34+ cell count came back at 205M. This was a bit low, considering the extra GCSF I got and the nominal target of 300M, but I guess I'd rather be on the antiproliferative side of things, all else being equal. This provides an immune reconstitution bag for bone marrow reboot (100M cells) and 21 "general purpose" aloquats of 5M cells. Nevertheless, I'm happy with this, and as you can see above, white cells are back to baseline.

 

But as you can see, my blood tests are a bit off balance.

 

Perhaps most significantly, my testosterone level is quite high. I believe my previous test came in around the center of the range, about a year ago. I'm confident, in any event, that I've never been above normal at any time in my life. Symptomatically, I've noticed a pretty dramatic increase in sex drive since about a week after taking GCSF, but it took long enough for its excessiveness to become obvious that I didn't really take note until recently. (Obviously this is a double-edged sword for a software engineer!) So I wonder if GCSF could be used as some sort of male hormone replacement therapy.

 

On the minus side, cholesterol appears to be a huge problem. My doctor agreed to run a kernel size test so we can see what's really going on. I expect this to be a story about large-kernel, essentially benign LDL, especially given my high K2 intake and low myeloperoxidase. But we'll see. No doubt that my high intake of (low-mercury) seafood and dairy fat is to blame.

 

My kidneys also appear to have taken a huge hit in a very short period of time, but the significance of elevated creatinine with low BUN is difficult to pin down. One theory is increased musclar exercise, but I would say that my exercise level is the same as pretherapy. In any event, this needs monitoring. And perhaps the calcium oxylate crystals in my urine are simply telling me that brocolli's oxalic acid is nephrologically incompatible with a ketogenic diet (confirmed by urinary ketones) -- not sure.

 

For the record, I stopped methylcobalamin, niacin, cacao, and Longvida 2 or 3 days ago because my visual memory has been poor (since starting Longvida). I also increased D3 from 1000 to 2000 IU/d and started 6 mg/d (double normal) c60oo and  at the same time, which seems to have halfway fixed the problem. My mother also started Longvida about 5 days ago, but despite similar genes, has had no negative mental or physical reactions, and actually mentioned to me that her word recall latency appeared to be lower. So in my case, the problem might be that I look Longvida with a lot of cheese, which might have resulted in tyramine crisis. In turn, I had an adrenaline shock while in bed which resulted in a sharp pain in the posterior right of my head -- perhaps a small stroke in the visual cortex. In any event, I would like to resume these supplements soon, along with nicotinamide. But I'm going to wait until visual memory returns to normal (hopefully).

 

Lumosity is seeing the problem clearly, with depressed scores on Memory Matrix and Eagle Eye. But the problem is isolated to pure visual processing. Otherwise, I'm doing well but not yet breaking enough records, as shown below. (I started playing games of my own choice, instead of the suggested games, just because I now think the whole LPI system is a bunch of crock, and I know where I'm weak and need improvement. Nothing talks like ranking vs. one's previous scores.) Scores from yesterday:

 

Memory Matrix (visual memory)
1. 40900 02/25/15
2. 35650 02/07/15
3. 35200 09/05/14
4. 34450 01/19/15
5. 34350 03/11/15

[today 30000]

 

Eagle Eye (visual angular span and temporal resolution)
1. 7502 09/07/14
2. 7080 10/14/14
3. 6277 12/09/14
4. 6171 08/15/14
5. 6166 03/15/15
[today 5552]

Pinball Recall (visual and orientation memory)
1. 17980 Today
2. 14290 01/22/15
3. 14260 03/13/15
4. 13750 09/11/14
5. 12610 03/11/15

Train of Thought (attention to parallel dynamic events)
1. 40700 Today
2. 40700 Yesterday
3. 39600 10/26/14
4. 38500 03/15/15
5. 38500 02/22/15

Trouble Brewing (task list memory and attention)
1. 30970 02/07/15
2. 29990 Today
3. 29970 11/09/14
4. 28990 01/22/15
5. 28980 01/05/15

Star Search (novel object identification)
1. 81050 11/30/14
2. 76430 12/20/14
3. 73440 Today
4. 72860 11/22/14
5. 71040 12/28/14

Brain Shift (shifting between text and number classification)
1. 20150 09/22/14
2. 19200 08/08/14
3. 18100 11/15/14
4. 17900 Today
5. 17850 08/07/14
 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 21 March 2015 - 03:56 PM.

[Arisia]

Concerning you creatinine readings. As you know, creatinine is a by product of muscle metabolism( and sometimes a sign of muscle damage or catabolism). Testosterone greatly affects muscle metabolism. If your testosterone has increased significantly since your previous blood work, that alone could account for your increased creatinine levels. It's not necessarily indicative of decreased kidney function.

 

High creatinine levels can sometimes be indicative of heart damage, such as a heart attack. Not that I'm suggesting that. Your increased testosterone levels IMO are most likely the culprit.

Edited by Arisia, 21 March 2015 - 05:04 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

Concerning you creatinine readings. As you know, creatinine is a by product of muscle metabolism( and sometimes a sign of muscle damage or catabolism). Testosterone greatly affects muscle metabolism. If your testosterone has increased significantly since your previous blood work, that alone could account for your increased creatinine levels. It's not necessarily indicative of decreased kidney function.

 

High creatinine levels can sometimes be indicative of heart damage, such as a heart attack. Not that I'm suggesting that. Your increased testosterone levels IMO are most likely the culprit.

 

Thanks for this note. I would have expected the opposite, namely, that increased testosterone would be anabolic, and therefore reduce creatinine in order to build new muscle fiber; in contrast, starvation would be catabolic, increasing creatinine. But this is just common sense, which has little to do with biology. if you have any references, I would be interested to read them.

 

I'll call the doc on Monday and see if I can dig out last year's testosterone level. I know we tested it and I'm quite sure it was normal; it is no longer normal.

 

I think the heart attack possibility is very unlikely under the circumstances, but it's good that you pointed this out for others.

[resveratrol_guy]

I started "real" stem cell therapy today. In other words, this time I'm going to keep the cells

 

Based on 205M CD34 cells released from 6x480=2880 ug of Neupogen, I need about 14 ug to release 1M cells. I just injected 0.26 cc of 300 ug, or 78 ug, into the upper arm subcutanteously. So that should mobilize about 5M cells. However, numerous studies seem to indicate that the efficacy of stem cell therapy doesn't improve much above 5M cells in one session, so I suspect that the effect is rapidly saturating in a kind of "battery charging" curve. For this reason, I've decided to parse out my Neupogen into smallish doses over an extended period of time, delivered perhaps every 2 weeks, in order to allow WBC to return to baseline each time. Furthermore, there's no doubt that more Neupogen has a diminishing mobilization effect with increasing dosage (just like any other drug), so I probably mobilized many more, perhaps 10M.

 

I was waiting for my stem cell results in order to start this phase, so I could gauge mobilization quantities. But apart from that, today is ideal, because I awoke with a lousy left-side headache, suggesting that I've got some good inflammatory signalling going on in that region, which is precisely where I want the CD34 cells to home in. I injected a couple hours ago, then took a bit of chocolate just to mitigate the pain, which halfway worked. I haven't felt any stem cell effects yet, and don't really know what to expect if anything, on account of the low dose. I'm happy enough just to know that it's fixing my blood vessels, whether I can perceive it or not.

 

[resveratrol_guy]

WHOA!

I was sitting down taking a break, when I noticed that my bodily inflammation was beginning to drop significantly. The effect was pleasant, rather like taking several aspirin at once (no, please do not try that at home). Unfortunately, despite what I would have hoped for if not expected, the headache was not subsiding, beyond what the chocolate had already accomplished. (Everyone knows what a caffeine headache is. It's the sort of headache induced by excessive vasodilation, which caffeine (in this case, from chocolate) can substantially mitigate.)

I got a bit of seafood to eat, then sat down at my computer to read the news. I was engrossed in the news article, which was political in nature and had nothing to do with biology. Suddenly, my left ear made a loud sound not unlike a low note blasting out of a flute. It was so shocking that I literally leapt out of my chair, heart racing. Fortunately, it ceased after a few seconds. I thought I might have gone deaf due to some catastrophe on that side, but fortunately some quick tests revealed that not to be the case. I played a few musical tunes of various frequencies, and noticed that apart from a slight reduction in volume, the music was crisp and clear. But my left-side tinnitus, which I've reported many times before in this thread and has been particularly annoying of late, dropped precipitously immediately following the "flute", to the point of being barely perceptible. Something literally flipped a switch! I think I should spend a while today listening to different types of music, in order to prime the auditory retraining process.

The headache is still there, largely unchanged and still annoying my left side. And yeah, I'm a bit naseous, probably more from the headache than the Neupogen. Whatever. I don't care. If the tinnitus comes back tomorrow, that's life, but I'm very thankful for today!
 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 22 March 2015 - 06:38 PM.

[Arisia]

 

Thanks for this note. I would have expected the opposite, namely, that increased testosterone would be anabolic, and therefore reduce creatinine in order to build new muscle fiber; in contrast, starvation would be catabolic, increasing creatinine. But this is just common sense, which has little to do with biology. if you have any references, I would be interested to read them.

 

...

 

Sorry, but I read this several years ago when my eGFR was down to 65 and didn't save any references. The only thing I remember was that it was a paper discussing how eGFR is calculated and what the relevant factors were in the calculation.

 

Doing a super quick googly search I see this study:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/20980358

http://ndt.oxfordjou...gfq663.full.pdf

 

 

We report the case of a 37-year-old male referred due to abnormal eGFR and creatinine in the absence of clinical signs, symptoms or other biochemical abnormalities of renal disease. Subsequent investigations based on a high index of suspicion for exogenous substance abuse led to a novel observation of significantly raised creatinine due to the presence of boldenone, an equine anabolic steroid commonly abused in body building

 

Where the use of an anabolic steroid raised an individual's creatinine levels, causing initial concerns of kidney disease.

 

However this study(in rats):

 

http://lib.med.totto.../44_037-044.pdf

 

Suggests that elevated testosterone may actually cause apoptosis of kidney tubules.

Edited by Arisia, 22 March 2015 - 07:23 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

 

 

Thanks for this note. I would have expected the opposite, namely, that increased testosterone would be anabolic, and therefore reduce creatinine in order to build new muscle fiber; in contrast, starvation would be catabolic, increasing creatinine. But this is just common sense, which has little to do with biology. if you have any references, I would be interested to read them.

 

...

 

Sorry, but I read this several years ago when my eGFR was down to 65 and didn't save any references. The only thing I remember was that it was a paper discussing how eGFR is calculated and what the relevant factors were in the calculation.

 

Doing a super quick googly search I see this study:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/20980358

http://ndt.oxfordjou...gfq663.full.pdf

 

 

We report the case of a 37-year-old male referred due to abnormal eGFR and creatinine in the absence of clinical signs, symptoms or other biochemical abnormalities of renal disease. Subsequent investigations based on a high index of suspicion for exogenous substance abuse led to a novel observation of significantly raised creatinine due to the presence of boldenone, an equine anabolic steroid commonly abused in body building

 

Where the use of an anabolic steroid raised an individual's creatinine levels, causing initial concerns of kidney disease.

 

However this study(in rats):

 

http://lib.med.totto.../44_037-044.pdf

 

Suggests that elevated testosterone may actually cause apoptosis of kidney tubules.

 

 

That case report is at least illustrative of the notion that elevated creatinine is possible in the absence of kidney disease. It looks like eGFR is a one-size-fits-all indicator that doesn't really fit sometimes. Granted, I'm not taking anabolic steroids or creatine supplements. I suspect the problem was my protein load, but it's something I have to watch. So how's your eGFR now? BTW different eGFR formulae result in different values. I use CKD-EPI.

 

I'm not too concerned about apoptosis from testosterone, as my proapoptotic supplements would outweigh any effect from mildly elevated testosterone. It makes no sense that such supplements should extend life, but that's what they seem to do, at least in simpler organisms.
 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 22 March 2015 - 10:39 PM.

[Arisia]

 

...

 So how's your eGFR now? BTW different eGFR formulae result in different values. I use CKD-EPI.

...

 

 

Thanks for asking.

 

Yes, the old MKRD formula have been replaced by the CKD-EPI CREATININE 2009 or 2012 version, both of which produce the same result using creatinine.

 

As of my last blood work( which I think was in December 2014), my eGFR is 71 (using CKD-EPI CREATININE 2009 formula). The reading of 65 was partially due to subclinical hypothyroidism. Once that was fixed it jumped back to the mid to high 70's. It looks like its gone down again in the last few years.
 

Edited by Arisia, 23 March 2015 - 01:05 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

Now that's interesting about your thyroid. I notice that mine is also on the low end of normal. Just the same, I'm happy to see that attacking TSH can actually enhance eGFR. This is a real departure from the notion that the kidneys are basically aquarium filters: once they're clogged, they're clogged. Note that we already have prefabricated, somewhat functional rat kidneys produced from stem cells dripped onto cartiligenous scaffolds, and that human scaffolds from discarded kidneys are in the works (search "kidney scaffold"). The human version should arrive in the third world in several years, I think.

 

So I just double-confirmed with my doctor's office that my testosterone in 1/2014 was 478. This fits with my weight at the time, which was dangerously low at 70 kg. I now weigh a comfortable 79 kg. So given the massive changes in the intervening year, it's impossible to identify any one cause to the elevation, except that as I noted above, my sex drive amplified noticeably within a week or so of Neostem's Neupogen; my exercise regimen was actually lower around that time, on account of precautions necessary to avoid bone injury.

 

As I mentioned, I decided that yesterday was good for a Neupogen injection on account of my headache at the time. Based on the flare up I had a few hours later, the technique must have worked. Indeed, there have been reports of deaths in the case of high GCSF dosage in primates (can't find the ref just now), apparently caused by overpopulation of macrophages infiltrating the brain parenchyma, presumably resulting in dangerously elevated hydrostatic pressure or perhaps inflammation. In any event, this technique should not be taken lightly. And that was only with 78 ug! Honestly, I'm glad that I had not attempted this before Neostem; otherwise, I never would have dared to accept 2880 ug over such a short period of time. I guess that a little headache goes a very long way with this drug, if my hypothesis is valid. Personally, next time, I don't think I'll inject unless my headache level is near baseline.

 

I'm still in resting mode and hope to resume normal activity in 2 days.

[resveratrol_guy]

Hi everyone. I figured that after a 2-month hiatus, it was time for an update.

 

First of all, there's a good reason I haven't logged in in so long: I wanted to test my ability to focus on a task and get things done. In the intervening 2 months, I wrote thousands of lines of computer code and published 2 utilities along with complete documentation. The result, in my view, was satisfactory, both from the standpoint of mental focus and the quality of the end products.

 

So I've resorted to taking GMCF whenever I get a headache of sufficient magnitude. (I've been operating under the theory that I need to have a homing beacon for the CD34s.) In total, I've probably liberated 20M or more cells since my last post. Thus far, I would say that the emotional and mental effects are more transitory than the actual vascular repair which we know to be taking place under the surface. I notice a mental boost that lasts for a week or so, but it fades away. That's fine with me, because the main point of the therapy was just to seal up the tight junction in the BBB, in order to get things in order for the next phase.

 

And now, from the do-not-try-this-at-home department, the next phase is underway: megadose Longvida (Curcubrain). What I'm trying to do now is reach a high enough dose to remove as much brain plaque as possible. (I'm not actually sure that my memory issues were more do to brain plaque, vascular injury, or what, but I figure that I should cover all the major pathologies.)

 

So here's the situation: I read in one rat study that 10 mg/kg raises seratonin, but at 80 mg/kg, dopamine is also upregulated. Given my weight, I put that at roughly 16 pills/day @ 400 mg/pill. So I was trying to work my way up from 1 per day. As expected with an SSRI (and Longvida is, for better or worse, an SSRI among other things), the first several days were exhausting and I basically turned into an easygoing artist (which happened on sertraline as well). Don't get me wrong, I like to be relaxed, and I certainly like doing art. But by trade, I'm a math person, so having my seratonin level drowning out my dopamine wasn't particularly concudive to productivity.

 

But I remember it well: I had an egg one morning, which predictably improved my cognition a few hours later. Then I awoke the next morning, thinking about math the way I used to, before this whole mess started. I remember marvelling at just how wonderful this particular brand of eggs must be, as the choline had apparently lasted a whole day. Then as the day wore on, the math skills persisted. Finally, of course, it hit me: after adjusting for metabolic differences, the "dopamine threshold" was more like 8 pills/day, than 16. Sure enough, since then (I'm up to 16/day now), I've been in a dopamine-fueled "math zone". Awesome!

 

So there's a study on Longvida which claims that 2.5 uM/L is the saturation point at which rodents reach maximum brain plaque attrition over a period of several weeks. Curcumin has a molecular weight of 368 g/M. In his video on Longvida, Blake Ebersole of Verdure Sciences (the Longvida folks) explains that a 650 mg dose raised subjects' free plasma curcumin to 20 ng/mL (2.0x10(-5) g/L). So how many 400 mg pills do I need, per day, to reach 2.5 uM/L (assuming that I take them all at once), without adjusting for rodent metabolism? Do the math:

 

pill count = ((2.5x10^(-6))  / (2.0x10^(-5) / 368))*(650/400) = 75

 

So if I had a rodent's metabolism, I would need about 75 pills/day to reach 2.5 uM/L. It's debatable as to whether higher molarity for a shorter period would be preferable to lower molarity for a longer period during the day, but practicality would dictate the latter. (It's probably more effective anyway, as maximum efficiency is usually at minimum dose per unit time; rather like how a car gets maximum gas mileage at low speed.) The real pill count is lower on account of metabolic differences, but perhaps higher on account of less absorption of later pills. So maybe it's about 50, which is an entire bottle of Curcubrain.

 

Safety has been demonstrated (see longvida.com) in force-fed rodents up to 100X the recommended dose for 90 days, so at 50 pills/day, I'm pushing those limits after metabolic adjustment. However, even at that dose, no serious side effects were noted.

 

If anyone is reading this and wants to know, I'll dig out the study links.

 

I've decided that I prefer natural substances with very high toxicity thresholds because they permit me to megadose quite safely up to the ranges in which I can reach the plasma concentrations used in studies which improved memory by dissolving a large fraction of total plaque; this goes for other supplements as well.

 

Thus far, the only side effect I've noticed apart from the week of SSRI symptoms (which have now subsided, except for the calmness, fortunately), is that my throat and bronchial tubes are dry at times. However, this might be related more to acid reflux, as I'm still on an atrociously high fat diet, and perhaps overdo it sometimes. The biggest memory improvement I've observed involves the recall of words from longterm memory.

 

Speaking of which, my visual memory has finally returned, for the most part. This is probably due to a combination of half of a shiitake-maitake pill daily, plus the aforementioned dopamine surge. I still don't really know why it shut down.

 

I plan to continue megadose Longvida as long as I can stand it (and afford it). Perhaps I'll drop back to 4 pills/d after a month at maximum intake (to match the rodent megadose studies). The biggest risk is that it tends to kill aggressive tumors, which means that if I manage to do so, they may return with a vengeance, immune to curcuminoid chemotherapy. I don't know of any aggressive tumors in my body, but then, we never do. That in mind, I've been back on 6ish mg/d c60oo. The olfactory and endurance effects are evident, as previously.

 

At some point soon, I plan to start the next phase in parallel with Longvida. That will consist of lion's mane therapy, probably at 1 g/d (unless I can get hold of some NGF eye drops). Then again, considering the excellent safety profile of straight NGF, let alone natural mushrooms, I might go nuts and take a bottle of mushrooms a day or something. But one thing at a time. I'm still working my way up to maximum lipidated curcumin.

 

And finally, for those of you who were wondering whether my recent (as in, since starting the ketogenic diet) high cholesterol was reminiscent of a fast food addict, think again. The LDL numbers looked pretty atrocious on paper, but I got the following results back after insisting to my doctor that he obtain a particle size analysis. He was pretty shocked, which isn't surprising, considering that in most cases, high cholesterol means poor vascular health.

 

1. LDL particle number 1001 nmol/L = optimal

2. LDL small 128 nmol/L = optimal

3. LDL medium 160 nmol/L = optimal

4. HDL large 6423 nmol/L = high

 

In this case, "high" refers to high cardiovascular risk, whereas "optimal" refers to low risk. Perhaps I need to start drinking olive oil with my coconut oil, in order to raise HDL. But by implication, 70% or so of my LDL is of the large fluffy variety that isn't nearly as dangerous as the small type. Granted, I suppose this puts me at higher risk of transient ischemic attack, but then again, my myeloperoxidase is low, indicating stable arteries (thank you, vitamin K2).

 

That's all for now.

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 01 June 2015 - 03:23 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

Today is day 1 of my megadose Longvida trial. (I actually started a while ago, but it's only today that I hit 20 grams (over several hours), up from 14 yesterday.) I feel fine. I have no signs of toxicity or even discomfort. Longterm memory is excellent (up from "very good" a month ago). Short term is decent, but leaves a lot to be desired. Sorry to be so qualitative, but I've found that cognitive tests are good at measuring lots of parameters that have little bearing on real life, but not some things that really matter.

 

I'll post updates here as warranted. 20 grams is one bottle, and I have 40 bottles, which is enough to dose me at roughly the same quantity per day per kg, and number of days, as was used in rodent studies which effectively reversed memory deficits. 1 down, 39 to go...

 

[ceridwen]

I have just ordered 6 bottles of extra strong curcumin from pureclinica.com where they claim it is being sold at reduced prices.
950mg Curcumin per tablet
180 tablets

[ceridwen]

However the most reasonable Longevida curcumin I could find was from Nutrivene 500mg 60 caps

[ceridwen]

Ok they reversed the memory defects. That doesn't mean to say they halted the decline. Some people should halt the decline 1st and then reverse the defects for this I might either take Saint John's Wort not to be taken with curcumin as it is a MAOI or Red Pine Needle oil which is a truly amazing substance. Not sure about its MAOI status though

[ceridwen]

Red Pine Needle bark is good for NGF. It is taken sublingually
Sorry I meant oil
I also take Noopept and GPC for NGF.

[resveratrol_guy]

Red pine needle oil? That's a new one. Any links?

 

BTW be careful with curcumin. Bioavailability differs widely, and there are a lot of misleading statistics out there with regards to plasma concentration. Based on the excellent Longvida thread, I'm sticking with that product until the data compels me otherwise.

 

Noopept did not seem to get much in the way of impressive reviews here, whereas Cerebrolysin did. That said, I think there's at least a theoretical risk of prion infection. Therefore, Ceretropic P21 is still toward the top of my list for what to try in the future. But first, I got another 39 bottles to guzzle down

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 08 June 2015 - 04:17 AM.

[resveratrol_guy]

If you're logged in, you can see what the contents of a bottle of Longvida look like (click on the photo to zoom). On the left is a coffee mug containing 20 grams of Longvida, and on the right is 50 separated pill caps. I put them on a white surface so you can see the waste, which looks to be less than 1%. As you can see, the granules are quite large, probably up to 1 mm. No doubt this inhibits absorption, unfortunately. I drank the whole thing with sufficient water over the course of an hour, albeit not on an empty stomach. I can't discern any toxic effects. On the plus side, my inflammation is as low it's ever been, and my longterm memory is in excellent shape -- better than before I started. I have yet to see any benefits to short term memory, however. What I really want to determine is whether or not Longvida produces clinically relevant effects. It's all well and good if I dissolve my amyloid deposits, but if that doesn't effect my short term memory, then it's clinically irrelevant for that purpose. We'll see.

 

Attached Files

•  longvida.jpg   40.03KB   1 downloads

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 09 June 2015 - 04:53 PM.

[resveratrol_guy]

Placebo requires varying thresholds to eliminate. For instance, in order to say with confidence that my short term memory has improved, I will need a very strong signal. I haven't obtained such a signal, and I've only begun to consider how it might manifest. OTOH, if something hits you out of the blue and leaves you shocked, it's probably not placebo.

 

So first of all, if there's any such psychological illness as antinarcissism, than I surely suffer from it. It's not that I don't want to look professional; it's that I'm happier not staring at myself in the mirror, than the other way round. As it happens, I had my bathroom renovated a while back, and I still haven't bothered to get a mirror because I'm happier that way. So for this reason, sometimes in the past I've noticed a weird bump on my skin that looks like it had been growing for a while, because I'm just not the type to sit there, checking out every angle in the mirror.

 

So it was quite a surprise to me, as I opened my eyes this morning and stretched out my hands, that the skin between my knuckles looked much more youthful than the last time I noticed, a month or two ago. (In the winter, they were cracked and occasionally bleeding from the cold.) I put my hands under a bright light and confirmed the change. The skin is shiny as opposed to flakey, and the wrinkles look more shallow. Given that the skin is a window into the body, I'm quite pleased with this result.

 

I'm just not sure why it occurred. I'm sure zinc had something to do with it, as I've been taking 25 mg/day for long before I started Longvida, and it's a textbook skin enhancer. I've also been on 6 mg/day c60oo, with just a few skipped doses, for a couple months now. (By the way, I switched brands a month ago.) And I've taken 4 bottles of Longvida, which would be expected to kill off senescent cells (due to SIRT2 activation?), completely independent of its junk protein disaggregation effects. Also, a month ago, I cut my quercetin dose in half, which if anything should result in the survival of more senescent cells.

 

So what's the cause? No doubt, some combination of the above. Still, I'm quite happy to see this unexpected improvement. Too bad I have no "before" photos, and I can't pin it down to any one cause. At least, for those out there with ectopic dermatitis, sebhorraic dermatitis, eczyma, or psoriasis, you might have another option. (It bears repeating: do not forget my theoretical tumor risk explained above, with megadose Longvida.)

 

Edited by resveratrol_guy, 11 June 2015 - 02:40 PM.