Can you get the page 2 result directly from Liposcience?

We've tried and encountered resistance.

The Liposcience people have deferred to LabCorp when the results were delivered via LabCorp. I believe that  Liposcience is honoring the terms of a contract. LabCorp is serving its own misguided purposes.

Dr. Davis,

When you get VAP results from  Quest all the info is included,to include the ApoB100.

LabCorp reports almost all the info except the ApoB100 number. So, they don't include one line not a whole page.  I realize this may not help LabCorp much and may just be more fuel to the fire, but I thought you should know.

The nice thing about VAP is that you get Lp(a) without having to pay for an additional test like you do if you want NMR and Lp(a).

Thanks and keep up the good work!

As a former employee of LabCorp, I would like to offer another possibility, they just screwed up.  The aim of top management has been to run up the stock price (and the value of their stock options)at the expense of their clients and employees.  The IT department in particular has been hard hit by corporate corner-cutting that has turned the flow of information from client to lab and back again into a nightmare. Losing a page of data from patient results is a very real possibility. MacMahon et. al. have been made aware of these problems in the past and yet continued their destructive policies.  I seriously doubt they will pay any attention to your complaints now.  Protect yourself and just go elsewhere.

As another former employee, I tried sharing similiar concerns about issues like this, and they ended up firing me. Take your business elsewhere!

LabCorp Sucks! I have had so many problems with them that I finally got fed up and created a website just to document all the complaints that people have against this sorry excuse for a clinical lab company, www.labcorpsucks.com. We will be taking all the complaints and providing them to investigative agencies in government. While they have some very nice people working for them, the majority of their mid-level managers are incompetent. Maybe after they are all unemployed they will "get it". Al - www.labcorpsucks.com

Hi Dr. Davis, we've got the same problem, except it's with a hemochromatosis test that was just run. When we get my husband's blood iron count levels tested at the Red Cross, the nurses always raise their eyebrows, and say, my goodness! You have a LOT of iron in your blood!
My husband was adopted in NC, which is THE hotspot for JH (juvenile hemochromatosis) in the United States. He has all the symptoms, has suffered them since he was very little, and they've become increasingly worse over the years. Doctors have looked him over and have never been able to figure out what is wrong. Some even told him he was simply lazy! We finally stumbled across this website for JH one day... and said, Eureka! That's EXACTLY it! He feels a million times better after he's bled... which gradually worsens over the next day or two, but for that little while, he's free of pain and loves life.
So we went to get him tested, and guess what... the results came back "negative." What the heck does "negative" mean? There are numbers for each test, right? We are looking for an independent blood lab with a commitment to quality... do you have any suggestions? We fear that the damage to his organs is so great that he needs help NOW, if you have any suggestions, we'd love to know! The tests are total iron binding count, serum iron and serum ferritin.

I must confess that I have worked at the Burlington location of LabCorp and have witnessed lab techs goofing off instead of watching the tests done, some of them timed precisely to give the accurate reading. Many of the people there are hired because of nepotism or cronyism and do not have the skills necessary or the lab degrees that they should, but have been "grandfathered" in. I know others who have worked there who ran microbiological testing and would screw up entire batches of gram pos/neg tests because they couldn't run the machine right... HUNDREDS of tests to be run again. If they sit too long, you get false positives and negatives... way to go... you could be dying, and you won't know! Way to go!

We're thinking about suing them if we get independent lab tests done and they come back positive (which they should... it's just a classic case). It's a fatal disease and he needs immediate help.

You need to have an unsaturated iron binding capacity done, all of the other test could be negative but very few labs calculate this test.  It is the most important when testing for hereditary hemachromatosis.  I broght  it up to our lab manager about a month ago and we started running it with all of our iron profiles.  We are starting to see more positives of this test along with the negatives on the total iron, tibc and iron saturation.  This test really makes a difference.  Feel free to email me, I would be happy to give you some advice.  cjpirkle@hotmail.com

I have even a more serious complaint with this lab. I am a patient of a doctor for chronic pain and nasty panic attacks.

It cost me $240 cash to have a drug test to prove to my doctor I AM taking both my pain and nerve meds. It's true, the UNINSURED people are the ones paying the price, we get charged the FULL RATE, medical insurance will negotiate a much lower price (I tried and they laughed at me!!) Well people, I hate too tell you this, but my results were NOT accurate and it may very well cost me my sanity and even my job if I have no meds during a work related panic attack I will be unable to work and likely will end up in the hospital, still with no medical insurance. I did everything I was supposed to to as told and directed.

The medication not detected was Klonopin (Clonazepam)- I have needed and taken this medication along with my pain killers for years, and now my life is much better and I can once again work for a living. Because of this screwed up test result my life now is in the hands of LabCorp and my doctor. - Most likely I will end up in a hospital if my doctor cuts me off. I’m in shock over this. I’m innocent. I can not understand what the problem is with the lab not detecting this particular nerve/panic med, but I have read that it’s happening to others too.

I have found much evidence that shows how the most expensive drug testing labs can go by NOT detecting Klonopin (Clonazepam)in patients that take it- and you can bet I have submitted all of such information to my doctor. This is my life as I know whats at stake here, (A LOT!!) and for $240 one would think a lab could find a med I was taking every single day for years, and even on the day of the drug test.

I had to pay CASH $$ for my drug test, so I hate their rates AND their screwed up lab work. My life as I know it is in the hands of a bunch of people that can screw up my life for a very long time. I suggest NOBODY uses this drug testing company.

Now I have to worry about real life nightmares hitting me while I drive, all because of a drug test that was wrong and a doctor that places too much faith in such tests. I’m not very happy, and I’m broke. I did nothing wrong and I fear there must be many others just like me in the same boat. Doctors should not place so much faith in these drug tests- they can be WRONG!

      ME

To me, this LabCorp policy is criminal. In fact, I wonder if this has the substance to justify a class action lawsuit against LabCorp. I believe that we can easily make a case that crucial health information is being systematically denied to people.

As a fromer employee and department manager for Labcorp I do now that from a Legal standpoint we are a third party that is contracted with your primary care physician to do you lab work.  If you ahve not received all of the information on a lab report then you need to bring thast up with your primary care physician.  We are only aloowed to release information directly to them in most cases, becasue we are a third party.  More often than not the final page of a report does not have anything on it but Labcorp information and nothing related to your test results.  As I said before the best option would be to go to your primary care physician and find out if they have the second page you are looking for and if not get them to request the page you are looking for or get a form of permission from your Dr to release this information to you.  The second part of this could take a little while becasue of our legal responsibilities in our contracts with the Dr's.  The lab that Iworked in was very thorough and caring about their patients and would have taken the time to explain why we could not release these results directly to you.  It is unfortunate that the lab you worked with did not take then time to help you further in your quest.  As with most compnaies some locations are not run as well as others.

okay its 4/2011    has anything changed?   I need to get this test done. what are my options?  I do get the numbers I need, right?

Feb 2013
LabCorp in Palo Alto on Middlefield Rd.  was shocking.  I thought I was in the third world.
Understaffed, specimens sat overnight, specimen box on floor outside on sidewalk, rude and very
stressed staff person working alone and doing the job of 3 people taking it out on the customers.
Our medical system is the worst of all the developing countries and the most expensive.    Blood
analysis is the heart of that system and if its completely deteriorated and no monitoring agency is
able to enforce standards, then what hope is there?  something is terribly wrong.

Dr. Davis,

Can someone have a good HbA1c but still have an undesirable amount of small particle LDL? ..Like perhaps someone with FHC that has their LDL particles floating around longer in the bloodstream and hence exposed longer to oxidants.

Thank you.

John M.

I love your blog but I have to clarify on this point. Check out the post by chris kresser: http://chriskresser.com/blog/why-hemoglobin-a1c-is-not-a-reliable-marker/

a1c is not reliable for many people because of the variation in RBC life length. healthy people's red blood cells may live as over 4 months whereas diabetic's live only as 60 days. This results in vast discrepancies.

For example my fasting BG averages 77 and postprandial peak is 85-90, but my hemoglobin A1c is 5.7

This doesn't make sense unless you account for differences in RBC lifetime.

I'm wondering what your opinion is of glycation and aging.

I've been reading that a major part of the aging process might be caused by glycation of proteins in the body, mostly caused by elevated blood sugar.

Do you believe that practically, one could expect a longer life expectancy to correlate with lower blood sugar levels?

The other day on the tv show, "The Doctors", they profiled a young woman concerned about her FBG.
She said that Diabetes ran in her family.
They did a bloodtest and announced that her FBG was 111.
The scary part was when they told her that reading was okay.
With that FBG, one can assume that everytime she eats, her post-prandial FBG is heading into dangerous territory.
But they told her not to worry.
She was right about her concern...as Diabetes will continue to run in her family.
Especially with that advice.

I found Walmart carries a Bayer at home A1c test kit that gives results in 5 minutes.  It came with two test cartridges so I was able to take one when I started lowcarb and another one 4 months later to see how much it came down.  (I came down from 8.3 to 5.2 in 4 months)

What is HbA1c for those long-lived okinawans with their rice-based diet, or those long-lived cretans with their wheat-based diet?

Wouldn't a lean healthy body (especially if there is occasional fasting) eventually clean up glycated and otherwise damaged proteins?

Glycation picks on the amino acid valine "wing" on the molecule of haemoglobin's B-chain portion. Aldehydes, both glucose aldehydes and non-glucose ones can become bound to that valine.

This can occur several ways. Glucose oxidation yields a byproduct, called gly-oxal; this is what most people monitor. In the glyco-lytic pathway called Embden-Meyerhof triose-phosphate drives gly-oxal into the molecule methyl-glyoxal (MG).

Type 1 diabetics have circulating methyl-glyoxal (MG) levels that are +/- 6 times greater normal. MG is a glycation end product.

Tyler's comment links to a discussion of fructosamine monitoring. This is from a non-enzyme driven reaction, called Amadori, where fructo-selysine and the fructos-amine 3 kinase cascade generates 3 De-oxy-glucos-ane (3DG); another glycation end product.

Enzymatic glycation occurs in pathological states. Macrophage activity spins off  the enzyme myelo-peroxidase; this generates hypo-chlorite. Hypo-chlorite pulls in the amino acid serine and then together they cause the formation of certain advanced glycation end-products; namely glyco-aldehyde and glycer-aldehyde.

Yet another non-enzyme chain of events can generate advanced glycation end products. This is when the molecule per-oxy-nitrite (ONOO-)gets stalled inside the cell and it induces the formation of gly-oxal/gluco-sone/aldehyde molecules that can contribute to glycation.

ONOO- normally is part of healthy cell signaling. When a metabolic processes is under sustained "stress" it (ONOO-) can't shift the cell function over to what it (the cell) needs to do (in order to adapt and cope). Instead of briefly signalling, signing off and going away ONOO-
lingers in the cell; a situation that may also be related to ageing.

I wonder if Dr. Davis can comment on situations where carb intake is reasonable and the patient has a decent HBA1c, yet still has higher than normal triglycerides and small LDL?

My own HBA1c has been in the 4.5-4.6 range, yet my trigs hover around 140-150, and I still have more small LDL than I'd like.

If restricting carbs doesn't work, D levels normalized, etc. what else could be the cause of higher than optimal triglycerides?

I know people with HBA1cs in the 5.4+ range, eat many more carbs than I do, yet still have lower trig numbers.

Hi Revelo,
Vitis vinifera leaf inhibits advanced glycation end product (AGE) formation. That is what many cultures, like Crete, eat wrapped around their cereal grain; we call it Grape Leaves in English (ex: stuffed grape leaves, a.k.a. Dolma in Greek).

Japan researchers (2009?) took 1 kilogram of dried grape leaves in 20 liters of water and stirred it for 3 hours at 80*Celcius. They administered the decoction in various dosages and found it can reduce the AGE of 3DG (3 de-oxy-gluco-sone) and also a marker of AGE in kidney disease, pentosidine, down to 1/5th the level from that study's AGE control levels.

The same study experimented with Anthemis nobilis using the same extraction technique detailed above. They propose the active ingredient responsible for the AGE inhibition is the compound called chamaemoliside.

Chamomile is the name of this plant in English; I suspect it is drunk as a tea in Crete. In the range of AGE inhibitors that they tested Chamomile was better acting than any other; grape leaves efficacy came in second.

Plants studied that inhibit AGE forming, in no particular order of effectiveness may interest you. These are: Crataegus oxyacantha (English = Hawthorn berry), Houttuynia cordata (English = Chameleon plant) and Astragalus membranaceous (English = Astragalus). Chameleon plant is a regular condiment used in Vietnamese and some south-east asian food; it smells kind of "fishy".

According to Steven Gundry MD, it is MEAT which is the primary cause of AGE's. (He doesn't cite any references for this in his "Diet Evolution" book.) He recommends Atkin's style low-carb/high-protein to lose weight, then low-fat (15% of calories from fat) as the maintenance diet. He is not too keen on grains, tubers or fruit, but rather emphasizes green vegetables.

Thanks for the nice explanations Might-o'chondri-AL

Diabetic nephro-pathy (ie: kidney complication), and kidney disease have elevated AGE. These are monitored as pento-sidine, gly-oxal, methyl-gly-oxal and 3 de-oxy-gluco-sane; which the body tries to excrete as carbonyly compounds.

Carbonyl compounds are hard to get through the kidney filters and cause an increase in uric uremia, which can be toxic. Too many carbonyls can cause, the so called, "carbonyl stress" of diabetic nephro-pathy.

Diabetic patients' kidneys eventually can't excrete enough sodium (Na); and that contributes to the high blood pressure (hyper-tension) diabetics tend to suffer from.

Ketones merit mentioning too. One of the markers for AGE in the kidneys is N-carb-oxy-ethl-lysine; which may (or may not) be a side effect of ketones. Type 1 diabetics do show elevated ketone levels incidently.

I am not able to offer any perspective on ketogenic diets and AGE however. However, vitamin C is known to decrease ketone bodies. (In the previous post, "Battery acid ...", more
diabetic responses to vitamin C appears among the comments.)

I've been eating low-carb (basically paleo) for the last 4-5 mo and just got my lipid panel results.  They sky-rocketed.

Cholesterol 300
  
Triglyceride 150  
    
HDL          33
    
LDL             237


Every number got worse.  The part that really sucks, is that the diet makes me feel great and nearly all my body fat is gone.  I'm 37, 5'11, 180 lbs and probably about 9% body fat.  Now I'm wondering what kind of trade-off I'm making.  Any thoughts, doc?

Testing different foods one hour after meals, it seems like a good rule of thumb for me is that each ounce of carbs raises my blood sugar about 10 mg,and that the kind of carb doesn't matter nearly as much as the quantity.

Paradoxical low carb yet relatively high HbA1c & higher carb but relatively lower HbA1c is reported by Annon. Doc assuredly deals with cases like these and has to resolve their enigma one by one.  

The gene HFE (human hemochromatosis protein, nicknamed High Fe  where iron = Fe)can have a variation (reference code = HFE rs1800562). This variation is seen in +/- 5% of Caucasians, but is not found in East Asian nor African genes.

More hemoglobin is in circulation for those having this HFE genetic variation. In this case, the same amount of blood sugar that can contribute to glycation of hemoglobin has more hemoglobin surfaces to glycate. Think of it as the glycation has to spread itself thin; the dilution of it's effect makes the % of Hb1Ac less (ie: lower Hb1Ac % measured in the blood sample).

On the other hand, genetic variation rs855791 of the gene TMPRSS6 (trans-membrane protease, serine 6)is implicated in anemia. In these individuals Hb1Ac readings range higher; there is less hemoglobin relative to the glycation potential in their blood stream. Think of it as the relatively low proportion of hemoglobin which has to bear all the glycation burden
(ie: Hb1Ac % is higher in their blood sample).

Anemic (hemolytic) tendency is also driven by variation of gene HK1 (hexo-kinase 1). This enzyme modulates how glucose inside the cell goes through  it's processing pathways.

This gene (HK1) codes for the unique iso-form of erythrocytes; erythrocyte configuration can figure in to low hemoglobin. In other words it is also a factor in high Hb1Ac readings; glycation potential in the blood over burdens the limited amount of hemoglobin around.

In response to several questions about the potential disconnect between small LDL/triglycerides and HbA1c: Yes, there are people in which one measure is more resistant. It varies based on the mix of underlying genetic predispositions, so it's hard to generalize.


Might-o'-chondri-AL--

Great discussion. Thanks, as always. You bring an incredibly sophisticated perspective!

Jonathan--

Spectacular! And within an unusually brief timeline for HbA1c.


Revelo--

Might-o'chondri-AL is referring to endogenous glycation. You are citing a discussion about exogenous glycation, two separate phenomena.

Might Jenny's observation and Nigel's study reference be reconciled somewhat ? I'll tag on my disclaimer of being unqualified to judge low carb or specific diets; since I've never struggled with weight or diabetes, and am not a doctor.

The study Nigel linked was done with all Kuwaiti subjects. In that country co-sanguinity in marriage is practised by +/- 54.3 % of Kuwaitis. And 1 in 5 are reported to be diabetic.

The data is very admirable; my suggestion is that the data trend may not exactly transfer to a modern Caucasian population; which is essentially interbred from migration and war (rape). This may be why Jenny sees a +/- 6 month plateau among her respondents and the co-sanguine Kuwaitis saw changes continue for a year +.

Genetic poly-morphisms influence fasting glucose (GCK, G6PC2 and MTNR1B), are implicated in Hb1Ac, triglyceride levels, HDL levels & so on. That said, I personally would try the low carb approach if I was diabetic.

oops posted this in wrong thread

Re: Anonymous with Cholesterol 300,  Triglycerides 150,  HDL 33 ...

Suggest you try a technique many dieabetics find helpful to understand food consumption influence on their blood sugar profile,"eating to your meter".
For a few days, record your blood sugar level immediately before eating a "normal" meal, and then after the meal get 1-hour and 2-hour post-meal blood sugar readings. Separate meals by at least 4 hours. Concentrate on monitoring your main meals and ignore snacking for the first go around. Better however, if you can actually avoid all snaking during period of the testing. Also you will want to add to your journal the foods, ammount consumed, and time it was consumed. If post-meal blood sugar values are high, then to determine a pattern folllowing a meal do a series of hourly post-meal readings until you reach 85 mg/dL or so. As a graph, these results should be helpful to you. Expect that the results will be revealing to you with unexpected high blood sugar values even after following a paleo diet. And if so, it does mean that paleo is not for you, only that you need to more discriminating in what and how much you actually consume.

I would be interested in hearing about your findings. By the way, you did not mention the blood glucose or HbA1c results of your recent lab tests.

My regards and good luck ... spo

BTW: practice good technique with the finger sticks. Do a quick but good hand wash using soap and a warm water rinse prior to a stick. Dry hands well. Dont squeeze hard at the site to encourage blood flow. The original stick should be sufficent to raise a drop of blood for the test strip. Using alcohol swabs and changing out lancets is not necessry when only working on youtself. Keep the test strip vial tightly closed other then when removing the current test strip. If you encounter an "extreme" value, retest for confirmation but clean hands again prior to the retest. My experiences regarding unexpected readings seems to usually invovle hand and finger contamination of some form.

Finally, on Amazon.com I am able to purchase unexpired test strips in 50 strip lots for my old AcuCheK Confort Curve meter for less than $0.16 or so a strip and often with free shipping. You just have to broswe around a bit.

@ Anonymous with 300 TC
I would say it could possibly be your liver cleaning itself out (it could have been getting fatty).  The higher Trig might be a sign you are getting too many carbs from somewhere (at least till your sugar stores empty some and insulin sensitivity goes back up) but it could be the liver cleaning out as well.  I think HyperLipid posted something about this once.

What source do you recommend for iodine and what maintainance dose?

I started my paleo diet/lifestyle on Jan 5, 2009 and got labs done TSH: 2.790 (0.270-4.200) Someone commented that I may need Free T3 & T4 for further eval.  I would like to try inc. my iodine since I don't use salt.

Thank you  (my full labs are here -- I am also looking into the cholesterol)

Dr Davis,

I was supplementing with kelp until I read about the arsenic levels found in kelp supplements. Arsenic is a known contributor to diabetes.

I contacted the supplement company and they gave me a run around about the arsenic level. They wouldn't deny it but tried to make it sound like it wasn't anything to worry about.

I wasn't at all happy about this, especially since so many supplements are contaminated with a lot of other substances since they aren't regulated.

Is there any way to get iodine that doesn't expose us to unnecessary amounts of arsenic?

Hi, Jenny--

There are many iodine supplements, such as potassium iodide drops, available widely in health food stores.

Alternatively, of course, you could make a habit of eating kombu or wakame, rich seaweed sources of iodine widely consumed in Japan and available in Oriental food stores or even Whole Foods.

would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on Free T3 measurement.  Many doctors will measure Free t4, and only total free T3 saying there is not much difference between Free T3 and total T3 measurements.  Small protein binding or something to that effect.  Thanks.

Would the RDA levels of iodine in multivitamins be enough to defend against a deficiency?

Are there absorption issues from this form?

I bought some technical grade potassium iodide, some 99.9% metallic iodine and a dropper bottle and made some 50% strength Lugol's iodine.  The recipe is: 2.5g iodine, 5g potassium iodine, add water to total weight of 100g.  I found the full strength solution wasn't dissolving so went for half strength, which still took about a day to finish dissolving.

This makes for about 3.25mg effective iodine per drop (which is quite a bit).  I add one drop of 50% Lugol's to the milk I use to take my vitamins at breakfast.  After three months of that, my dropper bottle is barely lower, but my thyroid panel is notably healthier (was at the bottom edge of "normal" T3/T4).

Also, this stuff is CHEAP!  The $30 worth of iodine/potassium iodide that I bought (100g I2, 200g KI) will make about 4 liters of 50% Lugol's (~80,000 drops).  I've got enough to give myself and my wife a drop a day for the rest of our lives, and have enough left over to make a few dozen 10-day anti-radiation KI courses (130mg/day or 1.3g/course).

I2 is picky about the container (teflon or glass with an airtight seal) but dry KI just needs to be kept dry and cool in a small tupperware container and it's shelf life is "indefinite".

Steve--

Free T3 deficiency will, I believe, prove to be among the most important factors acting as a coronary risk factor.

Plenty more on this issue to come in future.

Taking your ideas to heart about iodine deficiency, I thought I would try seaweed snacks (now I wish I remember where I read about them) and ordered from Amazon based on reviews...Long story short:  Love them.

So much I love them, I just signed up for the 5 box (24 in a box)monthly automatic delivery (2 of the boxes go to my household assistant who has a number of foreign exchange students over the years as part of the church ministry she belongs to, and one student from Korea introducted her to these dried, salted seaweed called nori or kim).  We did a taste test by buying from a local asian/Korean grocery and I was dismayed to find all 5 kinds we bought had corn oil listed as an ingredient, so we are sticking with the Amazon delivery as it is nori, sesame oil, and sea salt. Low carb, low calorie, I think low sodium (60 mg) for whatever floats your diet boat.  

Still I will look into Lugol's or pharmaceutical grade potassium iodine.  One concern:  An upper limit to iodine intake?  I have not seen any data. Thanks.

Off topic but wonder if you have seen this study?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090820124038.htm

Type 1 Diabetes Linked To Immune Response To Wheat

The upper range of dosing for iodine is a hotly-contested question.

For example, take a look at what Dr. David Brownstein (put his name in Google) says. He uses doses of 50 mg (50,000 mcg) or more.

Organic versus Inorganic Arsenic in Herbal Kelp Supplements
Although the report has several methodologic shortcomings, the most serious flaw is the authors’ failure to recognize that the arsenic most commonly found in seaweed and seafood products is relatively nontoxic.
This is in contrast to inorganic arsenic, which has well-documented acute and chronic toxicity.
Amster et al. (2007) did not discuss the possibility that the arsenic measured in the kelp supplement was in the organic form, nor did they address the great variability in toxicity among arsenic compounds.
These two oversights lead to the unsupported conclusion that the arsenic found in kelp is responsible for the unique set of medical conditions observed in their patient.

The full text is online and it is worth reading.

Sorry I meant to add
this is the form of kelp I use $3.76 and code WAB666 would save you $5 if you ordered something else as well.
How about being really extravagant and ordering a years 360 X 5000iu Vitamin D3 olive-oil based gelcaps for $14.98
2 years supply of iodine + 1yrs vitamin d3 for less than $20.
UK readers may be interested to know the cheapo German supermarket Lidl does iodised salt for 15p pack, it's probably worth decanting it into a airtight container as kitchens can be humid and iodine in salt will not be stable over time so Salt Pigs are possibly not the best way to retain the iodine in iodised salt.

I'm going to ask my doctor for a script for an iodine test next time I see him. I think a 24 hour, urine test is the only way to measure it properly. Serum isn't so accurate, if I remember right, although it certainly would be less of a hassle.

Anyone know what is the optimal level of iodine status? Top of normal range, or anywhere in range?

I take a couple drops per day of an iodine supplement called "Iosol," and I really like it. It's only 12 bucks a bottle (1,830 mcg per drop, 610 drops per bottle). You can find it here: http://www.iherb.com/TPCS-Iosol

It's not potassium iodide, but rather a combination of iodine (extracted from kelp as unbound iodine) and ammonium iodide. Some think this is better than potassium iodide. You can read why here: http://www.byronrichards.com/index.php/thyroid_leptin/entry/what_is_iosol_iodine/

Hi Jenny,

I supplement with 325 mcg Kelp caps from Now.  Amster et al. 2007 reports that the arsenic most commonly found in seaweed and seaweed products is relatively non-toxic. For example,the level of concern for total arsenic in crustaceans is 86 ppm,a concentration 10 times higher than  the amount found in kelp supplements.  I had diabetes type 2 for 20 years.  My last 3 A1c tests indicated levels of 4.7, 4.8 and 5.0.  So much for contribution to diabetes.

Thank you for making light of this!

Iodine & Vitamin D supplementation is making a dramatic difference in the way I feel. Mood and concentration have improved, not to mention my blood pressure has normalised (especially around meal time).

Get your levels tested and if in doubt!

Thanks, Ted. Great summary of the evidence.

Also, the Japanese include kombu, wakame, and other seaweeds in their daily diet in quantities that far exceed a kelp tablet or two without arsenic toxicity.

you might be interested in this article on the relationship between increased fructose consumption and iodine deficiency: http://www.raisin-hell.com/2009/06/why-iodine-is-being-added-to-your-daily.html

Can you address sea salt use? I've steered completely away from table salt and into sea salt. Some sea salt, such as the pink Himalayan variety, boasts something like 80 some odd minerals present in it. Is there adequate iodine in sea salts, if any?

would be interested in hearing from Chole J which of the healthy seaweed snacks she gets from Amazon

My take on Nori:  It is basically a potatoe chip from the sea.  So it has iodine in it, so the arsenic may not be harmful.  So.....what oil did they use?  Sesame oil is not that good for you.  Did they keep the oil below it's smoke point?  How often do they change it?  Where did the seaweed come from?  Downstream from the Chinese Drywall factory? Even sushi grade Nori smells rancid to me.  No thanks, I just don't think it is a health food.

This site info is great !  Thanx all.  In case you plan to make your own mixture (I do, eventually), people may think you are actually a trouble maker and not a health nut:  I learned that Iodine is use illegally to make d-methamphetamine.  Here is a govt site telling of that issue.   Who'd have guessed !
Smile.

You can buy "wild crafted" seaweed from domestic sources in remote California or Maine sources if you want to avoid unknown sources from overseas.

I have a variety of hand harvested and naturally dried seaweed products from Mendocino Sea Veggetable Company (www.seaweed.net).   They sell a small booklet with recipes, too.  

We especially love the Mendocino Miracle Mix (ground mixed seaweeds) sprinkled over our morning eggs.  I put MMM in everything from homemade condiments (mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and salsa) to soups.  MMM is also great mixed 30/30/30% with coarse Mendocino or Atlantic sea salt  and sesame seeds for a great seasoning shake.

There is another company I haven't yet tried, but it is also recommended by a Mendocino friend, Ocean Harvest Sea Vegetable Company http://www.ohsv.net/ .

I add some kombu to my homemade bone broths and often add crunchy dried seaweed to salads instead of croutons.  Some seaweeds can be soaked  a few minutes to plump back up and tossed into a salad.  When I make sashimi I also serve a salad of just seaweed with a ginger-(wheat-free) raw tamari vinaigrette.   Once you get over the unfamiliarity with sea vegetable it becomes quite ordinary and not much different to eat than land vegetables.

I ended up with hypotension from cutting out salt in my paleo diet and it was not fun. I now eat seaweed, but you have to be careful with that too. A seaweed-loving friend of mine now has hyperthyroidism!

Yeah, thanx Melissa -- everyone is tempted to recommend a "one-size-fits-all" diet but I bet it is more complicated than that.
All this feedback is very helpful.  
One person says take tons of iodine, the next says it can cause thyroid disorders, we must be very careful when taking advice on the internet (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Thanks for the reminder, I've been trying various seaweeds and sea vegetables but ran out while the local samphire was in season (I think it was a previous post by Anna that turned me on to these), I just put them on tomorrow's shopping list.

Dr. Davis,
I dont know where to put this article, which is  helpfull in the times of H1N1. I am just going to copy it here and leave it for you to decide the place for this please.
Vitamin D is also is major immune system booster.
http://www.starfireresearch.com/health/topics/swineflu.html

Iodine: the Forgotten Weapon
Against Influenza Viruses


David Derry, MD, PhD
332 – 425 Simcoe Street
Victoria BC V8V 4T3

Correspondence: Dr. David Derry dderry@shaw.ca


Background: After the 1918 Influenza Pandemic which killed an estimated 30 million people, governments financed research on the Pandemic’s causes. Over 25 years, influenza viruses were isolated and methods for killing them with various agents discovered. Iodine was the most effective agent for killing viruses, especially influenza viruses. Aerosol iodine was found to kill viruses in sprayed mists, and solutions of iodine were equally effective. In 1945, Burnet and Stone found that putting iodine on mice snouts prevented the mice from being infected with live influenza virus in mists. They suggested that impregnating masks with iodine would help stop viral spread. They also recommended that medical personnel have iodine-aerosol-treated rooms for examination and treatment of highly infected patients. Current methods of dealing with influenza infection are isolation, hand washing, antiviral drugs, and vaccinations. All of these methods can be improved by incorporating iodine into them. When impregnated with iodine, masks become much more effective, and hand washing is more effect when done with mild iodine solutions. Isolation techniques coupled with aerosol iodine would make them safer for patients, medical personnel, and all persons working with the public. Public health authorities could organize the distribution of iodine and at the same time educate the public in the effective use of iodine. Oral iodine might also boost body defense mechanisms in the upper oral and respiratory mucus. Conclusion: Iodine incorporated into masks, solutions, aerosols, and oral preparations could help to kill influenza viruses and fight off an H1N1 Pandemic.

Keywords. H1N1 • Influenza virus • iodine • aerosols • immunization • isolations • masks • prevention

Derry, D.: Iodine: the Forgotten Weapon Against Influenza Viruses.

I wonder if eliminating gluten would clean up that T3 issue. Yesterday I read that Celiac Disease can cause hypothyroidism.

Kurt's thyroid function normalized to nearly ideal levels just with iodine replacement. (The free T3, while improved, remains low; an issue for another day!)

Jenny!
I just started the NOW kelp w/ dulse caps, 325mcg iodine.  How do they work for you?  The supplement world is soooo confusing and overwhelming!!  I'm wondering if I can take two of these a day, one in am and one in pm?
Thanks for any insight you can provide!
Katie

Great chart!

But it's getting hard to find truly raw nuts anymore, unless one has or knows someone with a nut tree (cashews, even when labeled raw,  are always heat treated to remove their toxic skin).  

Industrially produced almonds in California's Central Valley had some food-borne illness contamination problems a while back and now must be pasteurized by steam or gassing, with a  few exceptions for very small producers.  Driving through that area and seeing the trees trimmed straight across for mechanical harvesting machines and the mountains of almonds by the side of the road waiting for pickup, it's a far cry from way our hunter-gatherer ancestors sourced their nuts.  

For the freshest nuts (least damaged PUFA oils), buy them in the shell and shell them at home.  It's hard to overindulge in nuts when one has to shell them.  

Additionally, nuts contain substances that inhibit digestion and nutrient absorption (these prevent the nut germ from sprouting prematurely).  The best way to prepare raw nuts for consumption is to soak them in salted water for hours or overnight (depending on the nut variety) to activate the sprouting enzymes and neutralize the anti-nutrients, then drain and dry.  A food dehydrator is very efficient for drying nuts, but it can also be done in the oven.  I soak and dry about 4 pounds at time, using sheet pans and setting the oven on the lowest possible temp (170°F on my oven), then cracking the door open with a wooden spoon to keep the temperature no higher than 150°F and allow for moisture evaporation.  It varies on how long the nuts must be dried, but 24 hours is a good average.  For safety I turn the oven off overnight or if I leave the house (keeping the door cracked open) and turn it back on when I am around and can keep an eye on things.  Otherwise, it is very passive hands off  "work" and can easily fit into other activities at home.  

The resulting nuts are not roasted, so the delicate oils aren't damaged, and are easier to digest than plain raw nuts, as well as being tasty and crunchy.  My husband and son love these "crispy nuts".  We always have a few pounds of several varieties on hand for snacking, school lunches, salad toppings, etc.

Ornish, McDougall, et al., advise not eating nuts if you have atherosclerosis. Why the disagreement?

dear doc,
apart from nuts(some of which, btw, are always in my fridge and I eat them daily)
- what do you think about the Pauling's protocol - could you spare a post on it some time?

Dr. Davis,

I absolutely love your blog - thank you so much for such an invaluable source of information.  

I'm wondering whether dry (& lightly) roasted (trader joes) almonds are okay?  Or if it's essential to eat them raw?  

Thanks!

This is a little confusing: "Provided they are raw--unroasted, unsalted (since salting only accompanies roasted nuts), not roasted in unhealthy oils like hydrogenated cottonseed or soybean."

If they're unroasted, obviously they're not roasted in unhealthy oils.

Please clarify your position on dry-roasted nuts. Is it the heat of roasting that is the problem? Or just the oils they're roasted in.

BTW, I find that almonds, which I dry roast myself, are a great antidote to the constipation that often accompanies low-carb diets.

interesting, but not to those of us allergic to nuts!  We lose out. I for one can eat peanuts which are really legumes, but raw peanuts i have heard are not good for you.  Hard to tell what oil it is roasted in as well.

Is non hydrogentated peanut butter with no salt ok?

This physician claims that coconut oil improved her husband's Alzheimer's.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/aging/article879333.ece

I also am curious about dry-roasted vs. raw nuts and hope for some clarification on this subject.

Great post......I like your blog so much...... Thanks for your valuable efforts. Good Job.....

Quick Weight Loss


Thanks!

Instead of peanut butter which is roasted, try raw almond butter. I don't miss peanut butter now.

StephenB

I enjoy salted nuts, but I am a bit concerned about the hypertension effects.  As stated in the chart, lots of salt is bad.  So, I was wondering about doing some home-roasting of raw nuts in something like peanut oil or palm oil and mixture of salt and potassium chloride salt substitute.

Here's what I do, as a nutty nut fan:

Buy several types of raw nuts at a local market and/or whole foods.  Also include Brazilian nuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (none of these on the chart, but each has a healthy fat profile).

I mix all of these in roughly equal quantities in a large bowl.  Then I add several tablespoons of olive oil.  Why, to make the nuts sticky for what comes next: seasonings!  I'll add black pepper, cayenne (chili) pepper, and sea salt -- all to taste, but I use a lot of sea salt.  (Note, sea salt is not like table salt, which is 99% sodium chloride and not healthy. Sea Salt is a composition of numerous mineral salts, and not only healthy, but required for longevity.)

I also throw in about 50 grams of unflavored egg white protein powder, which, when everything is all shaken up, helps keep the nuts from feeling oily to the touch.

Scott,

Thanks for the delish recipe!

We just switched to sea salt (for the Mag and electrolytes) -- GREAT TYP!!

What an interesting way to use egg white powder (besides making royal icing).

-G

Dr. Davis,

I'm wondering about your comment that "Contrary to conventional advice, nuts can be eaten in unlimited quantities. Provided they are raw..."

You see, 100 grams of Cashews has approx. 550 calories. While I'd love to eat a pound of 'em, that'd be over 2,000 calories.

Your thoughts, sir?

Paul

I can't eat nuts, they are too high glycemic and give me headaches. Almonds are supposed to be low glycemic, but my headache after eating almonds is proof that nuts spike my blood sugar. I hope to mix nut butter with a fiber complex to lower the glycemic response in the future. I'll stick with seeds for now, like sesame.

Not addressed by the charts is protein content of nuts, as well as the low sugar content, all additional beneficial aspects of nuts. Nuts are also a moderate source of magnesium (though seeds like pumpkin and sunflower shine in the magnesium content area).

I posted my story here:

http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/2010/08/diverticulitis-my-story.html

I can reproduce the symptoms on demand with consumption (always accidental)  of wheat and/ or seed oils now.  

Finding out the cause of these problems was one of the greatest gifts I've received.  My wife and and daughters are also susceptible to wheat poisoning, and have had similar stories of recovery.  

Thanks for your work on this, Dr. Davis.

Dr. Davis knows of what he speaks.  After being a diehard Ezekiel Bread toast and old fashioned oatmeal breakfast aficionado my entire adult life I could not understand why my blood lipids were so out of whack.  Small LDL was a solid Pattern B, Lp(a) was 22 and LDL was 159 according to VAP despite eating “healthy”.  At Dr. Davis’s advice I decided to give up grains of all types, wheat, breads, crackers, corn, rice, starch, sugars, etc.  I did not find it hard to do either.  My own internist even wrote me a prescription for pasture raised eggs and nitrate fee bacon for breakfast and advised that I should consider stopping Lipitor which I did.  I was indeed even more skeptical after that.

I was shocked after 12-months as my Lp(a) is now 3, LDL is a pattern A and LDL is 99.  I even questioned my doctor if the test results got mixed up with someone else’s.  I only take Slo-Niacin, Vitamin D3, Vitamin K2, kelp, magnesium and EPA + DHA.  Despite the dogma constantly preached to us by the pharmaceutical companies, LDL is not the enemy and high cholesterol is not either, it is the sub-types of cholesterol that we should be concerned with.  We would die without cholesterol in our system! Carbs are good in moderation but they must be good carbs. Eating good fats do not make you fat and eating cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol.  I also found that the Lipitor while lowering LDL really well raised my small LDL really to an extremely high level.

In 2003 I was eating every form of crap purveyed by the local supermarket; HFCS, wheat, PUFAs, diet cola, you name it.  Then the MI, followed by a stent and meds "which I would be on for the rest of my life."  I was 59 about 30 lbs over weight, mostly sedentary.  Earlier in my life I was a decent athlete and I had a PhD in engineering, so I was inquisitive about the technical issues of my health situation and determined to fight for my life.   While researching, the meds took their toll - shortness of breath, palpitations, muscle atrophy, generally feeling not so good.  Compounding the situation was gut pain now and then.  Literature on the web convinced me to try changing my diet and begin exercising.  So I went HCLF, mostly vegan, quit the PUFAs, lost about 20 pounds felt better and quit the meds.  Something still wasn't right.  Couldn't shake the fairly high BP (160/90) , loose stools, gut pain, and though total chol went down I still had low HDL and high-ish LDL and trigs.   A year ago I was back on the BP meds and very discouraged.  About seven months ago, I accidentally ran across this website and some paleo sites and had an epiphany - wheat!  and sat fat!   I quit grains and legumes immediately, cut way back on sweet fruit, and started adding meat (which I had given up), eggs, butter, cheese and coconout oil.  Stools firmed up and I felt better, so much so that I quit the BP meds and was convinced I could beat the health problems.  I don't know that I have completely, but as of the end of April, I have lost another 20 pounds (now 5'10", 157 pounds), BP is 130/80, HDL is 61 (was 40) trigs 69 (were 92) , total chol is up a bit (198 was 170) but the large buoyant particles dominate (no previous tests to compare).  I feel like the knowledge Iv'e gained from this website has been instrumental in the (so far) positive outcomes.  Keep up the good fight!

A year and a half ago, I was eating a diet with a lot of so-called "good carbs"--whole wheat bread and pitas, beans, fruit, and root vegetables. I was also working out hard six days a week. And I was putting on weight! When I stopped to think about when I started gaining weight, I realized it happened when I started eating wheat regularly. (I'd had stomach pain and thought something mild like bread would settle my it.)

Just eliminating the two pieces of bread or one pita per day made me start losing weight and feeling a lot less bloated. (Whacking out the vast majority of the carbs later on cleared up my stomach problems and made the weight really start falling off.)

A few months after going wheat-free, I had a cookie--my weakness. According to my blog entry from April 4, 2010, "eating that cookie [made with wheat] gave me a stomach ache, acid reflux for two days and painful nasal congestion--the viscous, sticky kind that won't move--for four days." After that, I started making cookies using wheat-free recipes, but mostly I ate basic low-carb fare like meat, eggs and salad. My appetite ratcheted way down. I'm normally pretty self-controlled, but in the past, once I'd start eating something with wheat in it, it was hard for me to stop myself. (That's how I found the Heart Scan blog: searching for "wheat appetite stimulant.")

Some notes from my blog on the effects of wheat removal:
My cravings for junk food have disappeared. I've stopped snacking on caramel corn, chocolate and diet soda on my non-free days. I eat two tiny pieces of chocolate per day, at most.
My hair stays clean longer.
Certain foods taste better. Coconut chai tea tastes like a candy bar in a cup (yes, I drink it straight) and even sardines taste better.
Since I got a scale ten days ago, I've lost two pounds. I even had to tighten the straps on my backpack today.
Three happy words: no menstrual pain.
I have more energy. If I were a horse, my name would be Secretariat.

My post with the quotes is here:

http://relievemypain.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-try-gluten-free.html

I have a 13 year old daughter who was struggling with symptoms of irritable bowel, including nearly daily intestinal pain. As of about 6 weeks ago, she is off almost all wheat, and her pain has decreased about 90%!

Despite diligently following the mainstream recommended low fat diet and exercising, my weight and body fat continued to drift upwards.  Bread and other healthy grains were part of every meal.  I was fat, embarrassed and my health was deteriorating.  I then ditched all refined carbohydrates, especially wheat and also sugar including "healthy" fruit juice and smoothies.  I switched from low fat salad dressing to pure oils (mostly olive).  Now having bacon and eggs when I would not touch them previously.  

My weight and waist size is the same now in my mid 50s as it was when I was a freshman in high school.  Weight loss is close to 25%.  Blood pressure and blood glucose is down.  HDL well over 100.  Dental check ups have improved.  

Every day at work, someone brings donuts, danish, cakes, cookies.  After a year and a half on this program, those items hold no interest.  Before this program, there was no resistance.  I enjoy my food more than ever.  I feel great.

Hi Dr. Davis!
I've struggled with IBS for years. It seemed to start after having my gallbladder removed in 1996. I assumed having the gallbladder removed was the cause and just toughed it out. I stuck to my low-fat diet and went on the best I could. It was horrible. I couldn't even enjoy leaving home for a meal because I knew that I'd need access to a bathroom in short order. The pain was excruciating, and the symptoms were quite frankly embarrassing.
So after 5 years of suffering I stumbled on to the low-carb diet. It seemed that overnight my IBS was gone. I was ecstatic and felt I'd gotten my life back. It wasn't until later, when I'd experimented with adding the occasional wheat product back in, that I realize it was wheat causing my discomfort and intestinal issues.

Oops.. messed up my website so when you click my name it's all messed up. My website is http://www.healthylowcarbliving.com

Thanks!

I started eliminating wheat about 18 months ago. I have had asthma since I was about 3 and was fed up with taking steroid inhalers, with prednisone when the flair ups were really bad.

I'd tried eliminating dairy products with very limited success, and was convinced that there had to be a positive dietary factor to asthma, and if I could find and eliminate the culprit, the asthma would finally be vastly improved, if not "cured".

I decided that what I had to do was work put which foods humans had evolved to eat and which had been introduced post farming / settling in one place. Wheat was the big answer - and when I looked online I found that both paleo and primal were "movements" following the same ideas.
Within two weeks the asthma was so improved that I stopped using ventolin at all. I started taking the inhaled steroids (seratide) every other day, then every 3rd day, once a week and then finally - never.

I have never felt as well, I can walk miles (which I never could previously), I can walk up hills which was always a trigger for wheezing / a puff of ventolin - and I can do gardening now for so long at a time that I give up because my legs / back ache rather than because I am wheezing.

My GP was amazed when I told him that I no longer needed steroids on my  repeat prescription; he asked what I'd done to manage this "because no-one comes off steroids for asthma".   And as a side benefit, I've lost 18 lbs weight, and blood pressure has dropped to usually around 120 / 74, when just two years ago there had been a suggestion of starting me on statins.

I try to get everyone I know to give up wheat. With as yet - no success at all. Friends comment on how well I look, are amazed that the asthma has gone - and tuck into a sandwich.

I don't get the obvious physical symptoms from eating wheat - no noticeable digestive issues, skin reactions, and so forth.  My issues with wheat are more subtle.  I'm the typical lifelong fat guy - I've been chubby my entire life; I only knew I had abs because without them I know I'd fall over backwards.  After adopting our second child, with the sleepless nights that go with an infant, I put on qutie a bit of additional weight on the typical lazy American pizza and diet soda diet.  

One day, while reading this blog, I had a sort of epiphany.  I had always thought that carbs were my problem, but had trouble doing high intensity exercise on a very low carb diet, so I'd yo-yo back and forth from low carb to high carb.  What I realized was that every food binge I've ever been on - and there have been many, some epic in proportion - started with wheat.  I may have wound up the night eating a half gallon of ice cream, but I always started it with pizza, bagels, sandwiches, or the like.

It took another couple of weeks for me to realize that few things made me happier than those wheat binges.  Not in the long term, of course, but temporarily - wheat makes me happy, you could say buzzed.  I can eat 6 bagels and be as happy as a normal person drinking a six pack of Budweiser.  I read an article about gluten affecting the opiate receptors in the brain and realized that I wasn't a sugar addict, I was a wheat addict.

The night the series finale of Lost aired I went on one last wheat binge.  I haven't had a slice of bread, pizza, a sandwich, a brownie, a cookie, or a piece of cake since that night.   I get my carbs now from sweet potatoes or the occasional bowl of white rice.  I've dropped 40 or so pounds. I'm set to try for my third degree black belt in karate in two months.  Physically I feel better and am in better shape, at 40 years old, than ever - even better than when I was a teenager playing high school football.  And it turns out that I do have abs -there's visible proof now.  Long term friends are amazed at the changes.  And without wheat to drive me along my binges are a thing of the past - though I do indulge in manageable amounts of dark chocolate, wine, and the occasional gluten-free beer.

Perhaps more importantly, I realized that I've been using wheat to mask my own depression for years.  I was unhappy for a long time and taking the edge off with gluten.  I've left my unhappy marriage, changed jobs, and totally turned my life in a different direction.  Nothing has made as big a difference to my health - and I've tried a lot of things - as giving up wheat.

Whether you use this story or not, you should know that your blog has made a huge difference in my quality of life.  I can't thank you enough.

As a child I was on the worst diet possible.  We were allowed all the sodas we could drink.  We visited grandma not to far away and she allowed us to eat all the sodas and candy we could eat.  McDonalds was five blocks away so everytime we visited we ate at McDonalds.  My mother hated to cook and did not know what a vegetable was.  Now many many years later I am married with children.  We have changed our diet to a whole foods diet.  I even ground my own grain.  We did not eat processed foods, no msg, and had eliminated high fructose corn syrup.   Yet my sugars continue to raise and the weight would not come off.  I started having problems with my thyroid.  I went to an endocrinologist.  I looked at all the patients in the waiting room and they all had to weigh 300 lbs.  My parents went to an endocrinologist and my dad was close to 400 lbs and my mom was well over 200 lbs.  This was a death spiral and I wanted off.  I could not get off of the couch and in frustration my husband took me to the Hotze clinic.  We met Dr. Sheridan there who explained that the problem with diabetes was sugar and grains.  He took me off all grains (even rice and corn).  He also took me off of sugar and now I use natural sugar such as stevia but not too often.  He also addressed the hormonal and thyroid issues I was having.  He told me I would have to work very hard.  So instead of another pill I was actually told what to do.  Six months later I have lost 35 pounds.  I have lost a lot of inches mainly in the belly.  When I went visted Dr. Sheridan my fasting blood sugars was 156 with meds.  Now they are usually 120 and below.  I still have some work to do there.  My triglycerides have dropped a little over 100 points and without statins.  I have worked hard and I am off of the death spiral

I went off of wheat about a year ago trying to get my cravings under control.  It worked and after being off of wheat for 40 days, I decided to try eating it again.  I added two slices of a good whole wheat bread to my diet.  What a mistake!  The itching that I had all of my life came back and within 2 days my right foot swelled up.  I went to urgent care at my drs office as I had badly broken this ankle a few years ago.  The Dr. looked at my ankle and was ready to send me to xray, then I said - let me throw this in the mix, I am itching like crazy for the past three days.  He scratched my arm with his nail, the scratch turned bright read in a minute.  He told me I was allergic to something and to stop doing it.  I know what it was - the wheat, as that was the only thing new I had added to my diet.  So I stopped eating it again.  

While I was finding this out for myself - my youngest sister found she was allergic to wheat also.  We talked to our mom and got her off of wheat too. All of us have lost the 'wheat fog' that permeated out minds and feel so much better.

I am happy to find this page.
15 years  ago i gtested allergic to many things and the one that was the most significant was wheat.
I fasted for 100 hours and was tested by an allergist. I reacted to many foods but he wanted me OFF wheat. I did as I was told and kept jornals, I still have them of my years without Wheat. No bread, pizza, nothing with yeast or wheat.
My health really improved in that space of time. So much so I still avoid wheat. I allow myself to eat it once in a while and I know if IO wait for a long time I can do it again.
I sffered from GERD and oesophageal spasms, they are now a thing of the past. I was so very thankful I found a person to help me. Because he had a busy ENT practice he had to give up the allergy practice but I handle this very well on my own. Pat in Maine.

I cured my rosacea when I dropped wheat from my diet.  I'm also 20 pounds lighter.  Here is the roscea story.  

http://criticalmas.com/2011/04/be-your-own-dermatologist/

I am an athletic, 46 year old heterozygous FH who suffered "Severe irritability associated with statin cholesterol-lowering drugs (see Beatrice Golomb study)" on all statins but pravastatin.  Three years ago I also gave up pravastatin which caused me to have severe muscle pain and plantar fasciitis. All of the resins, niacin, and others have produced other strange effects like angina or severe GI troubles.  Zetia produced extreme levels of itchiness.

I decided to investigate a diet for diabetics, even though I was not one, and discovered the paleo diet.  Since giving up my life-long, low-fat vegetarian diet and switching to buffalo steak and eggs , my HDL levels nearly tripled to 91, while my TC stayed at 300 and LDLs stayed at 200.  My bodyfat % fell to 11% from 15%. My measured coronary plaque is 0.  My BMI is 21.3 and I maintain a daily aerobic routine.  My FH family history is my father died of MI at 66, his mother (Homozygous) had an MI at 39, then died at 69 of MI, her mother died of an MI at 54.  Everyone else (non-FH) lived to 90+.

I would happy to participate in any future studies.

Here is a story I plan to post on my own blog next week, possibly after some re-writing.

A Gluten Story

I had the honor of sitting with Tom Naughton at dinner Thursday night on the Low-Carb cruise, and among the topics of conversion was gluten. Tom related his experience with gluten elimination, and the resulting end of the chronic pain in his shoulder and hands. I found that story to be very interesting, since I had experienced the same sort of thing.

My wife and I decided to go on a low-carb diet in 1999. It was a move of desparation, because we were both more than 150 lbs overweight. She had been diagnosed with diabetes, and was on two medications (advandia and glucophage), and was still having wild blood sugar swings, along with extreme fatigue. I wasn't quite to that point, but I had a number of health problems, including hypertension, poor night vision, chronic acne, almost constant heartburn -- and a mysterious pain in my hands and knees. That "arthritis" started back in the mid-90's, and had gradually worsened to the point where I was forced to quit playing my violin in public because I was unable to practice enough to preserve my skill -- it hurt too much. I had complained to several doctors about it, and none of them could find anything wrong. One gave me some medication which had side-effects even worse than the arthritis (and, as I discovered when I quit taking it, it was highly addictive!). I decided to simply quit complaining and just live with it after one doctor suggested that I see a shrink. My mother also complained of constant arthritis pain, so I assumed that it was just a genetic thing, and I would just have to live with it.

My wife started on low-carb on December 3rd, 1999. I wasn't quite ready then, but I did decide that I would go along with the diet, starting with reading some low-carb books, starting with the Atkins New Diet Revolution and Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. I wanted to be the supportive husband in spite of the fact that I was convinced that low-carb was just a recurrance of the "Calories Don't Count" fad diet of the 1960's, and we would certainly be even worse off in six months, just like we had been after every other attempt we had made to lose weight.

One of the things that I observed in her was that she felt *really* bad for a couple of days after starting low-carb. I had read about "Atkins flu" and decided that rather than going low-carb cold turkey, I would keep a detailed diet log for a couple of days to get a baseline carb count before starting, and then cut the carbs down gradually. I was a bit surprised to note that I was consuming in excess of 400g of carb per day. By day three, I had cut that to 200g. I didn't feel too bad, so I gradually tapered off the carbs and ramped up the protein and fat. I still kept a detailed diet log, although I don't really remember why. About a week into the diet, I cut out the grains completely. No more bread. No more raisin bran with skim milk. No more rice, no more oatmeal. At that point, we went through the kitchen throwing out stuff.

It was almost as traumatic as going through a divorce, throwing out all those boxes of cereal, loaves of bread, canned colas, and other items we decided we weren't going to eat anymore.

Two days later I had cut out all grains, something amazing happened. I woke up with no hand pain! That was really different. I had lived with chronic hand pain for so long that I had grown accustomed to it, and its sudden disappearance really startled me. I went back a couple of days in my diet log and saw the notation that I had given up all grain, and I begain to suspect a connection. I still wasn't really low-carb (I eventually reached what Aktins referred to as 'induction' level, or about 20g/day, but that was about a week later), and at the time, I had not yet lost any significant weight.

That is not the only positive result I have experienced from going on a low-carb diet, but it was certainly the most dramatic. The disappearance of the hand pain is the thing that has made it really easy to stick with a low-carb diet.

Am I certain it was the grains? Or more specifically, gluten? Not 100%, but it is the most likely culprit. Plus, since that time, I have experimented with "low-carb" bread, and within a few days, I have felt the beginnings of hand pain a few days after eating anything with a significant amount of gluten. I have also read enough about gluten to convince myself that I am much better off without it in my diet. I am fortunate that I am not extremely gluten-sensitive, since going completely gluten-free is pretty hard to do.

Hi Dr Davis-Just wondering of your opinion of wheat grass when its juiced?  Is it as healthy as they claim? or just as harmful as the grain?

Dear Doctor Davis, I am very glad to have found your program and consider the evidence presented by long term users to demonstrate the efficacy of the low-carb, wheat free diet. I was intrigued when I came across this study from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The study, titled "Low-Carb Diets Linked to Atherosclerosis and Impaired Heart Vessel Growth", convinced Anthony Rosenzweig, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Research to get off his own low-carb diet - http://www.bidmc.org/News/InResearch/2009/August/LowCarbDiets.aspx
Would be very interested in your comments. Thank you, Ellis

My story is quite simple.  I gained a ton of weight post neurosurgery residency  eating a lot of wheat and granola.  My labs became psychotic and I knew as a physician what that combo meant long term to my longevity .  I reopened my biochemistry books and began non stop reading.  When I finished reading I found out that I needed to eliminate several things from my diet with wheat and grains at the top of the list followed by most sugar/fructose.  I also limited omega sixes to get my AA/DHA levels to one to one.  In 11 months I dropped 133 lbs with this info I found.  Today I am all about optimization and limiting autophagic death of my cardiomyocytes.

Hi Ellis,
Interesting enigma; EPC (endothelial progenitor cells) in circulation (C.P.C. circulating progenitor cells,  for simplicity  I'll stick with  EPC  ) went down  40% on rats fed 45% protein,  43% fat & 12% carbohydrates.   Age, diabetes, smoking and being immobile drop the EPC levels and the functionality of EPCs to begin with in humans.

Exercise, weight loss, statins and angio-tensin receptor blockers (RAS blocker), and estrogen tend to increase EPC.  The context involves how much EPC is made,  how much persists (ie: doesn't  suffer apoptosis) ,  circulating levels of progenitor cells,  their particular age (ie: early  vs.  late stage of outgrowth work differently ) and how consistently they get to their target endothelial site.

EPC  differentiation seems to involve an acetylated LDL molecule uptake into a mono-cyte where it binds to a lectin (ex: human selectin);  a matured late outgrowth EPC in circulation can proliferate itself > 100 times once outside of the bone marrow.  So,  there is the implication that certain plant lectins (carbohydrate linked protein) are capable of augmenting the EPC level;  soy beans have both lectins and phyto-estrogens, which may explain part of their  touted cardio-vascular reputation.

Why the low carb/high protein/full fat diet for rats radically  lowered their  EPC measure ( supposedly both circulating early and late outgrowth combined) is  something I am not able to say. Data does show that the lower the EPC the higher the vascular risk of a  damaged endothelial mono-layer staying disturbed (ie:  not regenerated by EPC) and thus primed for plaque formation.

Rat researchers you cited  said they boosted the protein content to mimic human low carb eaters practice;. Maybe (maybe not?) the proportion of  reduced carbohydrate based plant lectins  were not compensated for by enough other protein rich lectins (ex: whole soy as a protein  source with lectins,  verses purified soy protein).

Doc,  I think,  includes soy in his dietary recommendation;  if soy phyto-estrogen mimics estrogen then it's action would be (like estrogen, and statins for that matter) via the PI-3-kinase pathway up-regulation of  bio-available NO (nitric oxide),  and  thus subsequent reduction of EPC apoptosis (ie: EPC doesn't die back so readily).  Doc, I also think,  stresses  regular exercise ; this stimulates erythropoietin ( glyco-protein that makes red blood cells) which itself (ie: erythropoietin) induces elevated levels of circulating EPC.  

Docs regimen may also,  I am not sure about this,  boost levels of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) which increases circulating EPC;  age is associated with low VEGF in the general population. Of course I  did read the article where one doctor told the other  low carb dieters were commonly hospitalized with cardio-vascular  problems;  I am not an expert on this by any means.

Ellis
You need to be very careful about these mouse studies.
The type of crap they feed the mice is often the cause of the negative results.
Some of these 'scientific' chows are not what humans would ever consume.
Question what kind of fat and protein they were getting.

Hi Doctor Davis,

I'm a 50 year old male who has experienced a lifetime of health issues. Besides battling weight gain from my thirties on, I suffered from recurring sinus infections, sinus headaches, post nasal drip, lung congestion, allergies to an increasing list of foods, irritable bowel syndrome, skin rashes, dry skin, insomnia, intense itching, urinary tract problems, benign prostate enlargement, a bout with gout, oral thrush, intense sleepiness after certain meals and lactose intolerance. I also would experience random episodes during the first hour or so of sleep where I would awake gasping for air. This would require me to sit up on the side of the bed desperately attempting to catch a breath. These episodes would last about 30 seconds and scare both me and my spouse. I'm sure I've left out something but that gives you some idea of what I've been dealing with.

A number of these issues got better several years ago when I decided to eat a low carb diet and cut back on sugar, including fruit. My HDL levels increased and my triglyceride levels came down to below 100. I also began taking pre- and probiotics on a consistent basis as it became obvious to me that I was suffering from a leaky gut. My weight went down a bit and my sinus allergies got better but my digestive and urinary complaints remained as did my alarming nighttime breathing episodes. I could never figure out the trigger for these attacks as I would normally not eat anything past 6 in the evening and these episodes would occur an hour or two after I had gone to sleep usually around 10 or so. I tried cutting out dairy but that didn't help. So while cutting back on sugar, carbs and taking probiotics did resolve some issues, it was by no means enough to resolve my remaining health issues.

What I had never tried was completely cutting out wheat,  even when I went low-carb. I figured if I remained within my "carb count" I could get away with eating "healthy sprouted whole wheat bread" and all would be good. And how bad could it be to have an occasional slice of bread, pizza or flour tortilla on the one or two nights I went out to eat during the week?

After some research on gluten and wheat germ agglutinin and after reading your blog and others, I decided to go wheat and gluten free to see if that was the issue even though, according to the tests administered by my doctor, gluten was supposedly not a problem for me.

The results have been nothing short of miraculous! My IBS disappeared and with it the painful gas and bloating that went with it. The steatorrhea I suffered from also went away and with my restored ability to digest fat, my dry skin returned to normal. My skin rashes cleared up. My allergies and sinus issues also cleared up. I've begun to lose weight again. My lactose intolerance went away. My urinary tract issues are gone. My sleep is much, much better than it has ever been and my nighttime episodes of gasping for air are gone for the first time in my life!

God knows what other damage eating wheat has done to me that I'm not aware of but I've vowed never to eat it again. I just don't want to experience the ill health again or see the inside of a doctor's office anytime soon.

I went on the Atkins diet 8 years ago.  The wheat in my diet dropped dramatically.  Within a day my usual afternoon tiredness disappeared.  I felt more energetic and my usual abdominal pain went too.  I stopped being constipated. My nails needed to be cut instead of just being able to peel them off. My chronic iron deficiency anaemia improved and I have not had an apthous ulcer in my mouth since.

Three years ago we went to nothern France to a holiday camp. It rained and rained.  The redeeming feature was a very nice bakery. I was so fed up I started eating the lovely croissants for breakfast. In 4 days the abdominal pain was back. I stopped these immediately and the pain resolved.

I am a doctor, and it seems to me that my pre-wheat free diet symptoms had many similarities to someone with coeliac. It is too late to test antibodies now and I would not consider re-starting wheat for weeks just to prove the point.  My life is miles better without wheat.

Dr. Davis I posted my journey on my blog - you have been a great source of information for me - I cannot wait for the book - free or if I have to pay!

My daughter was diagnosed Celiac in December and I have had IBS issues my entire life.  We are both healthy and feeling good now.

http://i-am-paleo.blogspot.com/

For the last ten years, I've had the goal of performing a pullup with one arm.  I diligently trained to make this goal happen.

While never overweight, I did have a bit of a belly.  Surely, the ten or fifteen pounds of extra weight surrounding my viscera wasn't helping me get over the bar.  No amount of exercise, no matter how intense, was getting it off.  The one-arm pullup remained out of reach.

Then I eliminated wheat, oats and sugars from my diet.  The belly came off in a matter of weeks.  And with my frame fifteen pounds lighter (and few tweaks to my training), I was able to reach my goal and perform those one arm pullups.  (Photo available upon request).

Hi, Tuck--
You are a great example of how dramatic the effects can be in some people.

If you'd be willing to talk to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx. This is an interview for comments, not for broadcast. They are just looking for interesting stories like yours to highlight this discussion.

Aerobic--

Thanks for the detail on your lipids and lipoproteins.

Please let me know if you'd agree to tell your story to one of my editors at Rodale at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

Hi, Lori--

Fascinating!

I'd like you to share your story. If you'd be willing to talk to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

HI, John--

Great weight loss story!

If you'd like to share your story with one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

Hi, Andrew--

I could use a good asthma story like yours.

If you'd be willing to talk to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

Thanks, Joe.

I'd love to share your powerful story. If you'd agree to speak to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

Hi, Howard--

I'd like to share your story. The arthritis aspect of wheat exposure is very important and woefully underappreciated.

If you'd agree to speak to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

Hi, Susie--

I remain uncertain about wheat grass. However, given the extravagant responses some people have experienced with wheat exposure and wheat removal, my bias is to avoid it and try to obtain phytonutrients by some other route. There are, unfortunately, next to no data on the composition of wheat grass nor tolerability in celiacs or other populations.

133 lbs! That's fantastic!

If you'd agree to speak to one of my editors at Rodale, please let me know at http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx.

My story is not really directly about me, but my son.  In an effort to control behavior, we decided to go a natural route.  After my niece was diagnosed with Autism and they put her on a gluten free diet, I decided to try it with my son.  He has always (since infancy) struggled with constipation and immediately after stopping gluten, he no longered suffered from constipation.  I was amazed and this was less than a week after we went gluten free.  That alone was enough to convince me he should not be eating gluten.  We have been gluten free for over a year now and I can see a definite, but sublte difference in his behavior if he has been "glutened."  His behavior becomes "off" in a way that I cannot really describe.  We call it brain fog, but it is more than that and he becomes agitated and has a harder time controlling his actions and concentrating.
Since he is young, it was easier to make the household gluten free and not buy any gluten products.  My younger son suffers from eczema and though it hasn't eliminated his eczema and he still gets gluten snacks in school, I noticed when he is off gluten for an extended period of time his eczema is greatly improved.
As for myself.  I stayed with the gluten free diet, too since I wasn't bringning it into the house and we barely went out to eat and if we did, we all order off the gluten free menu out of kindness to the kids.  I noticed after 4 months of being gluten free that I was waking up almost pain free.  Now I never had a lot of pain but I would wake up with stiff and/or painful joints.  After 4 months that pain was greatly reduced and after 6 months, that pain was totally gone.  I made the transistion to Paleo eating in October and since then, my weight has dropped over 21 pounds and I have lost 2 sizes and my energy has increased.  If I am glutened, I feel terrible and almost hungover the next day and sometime it lasts for a few days depending.  I will also gain up to 5 pounds which take me weeks (literally) to take off again.
My husband eats gluten free almost all the time.  Sometimes when we are out or he is at work he will have cake or something.  He will also have a beer occassionally.  He tries to eat as paleo as I do.  He has dropped almost 10 pounds and experiences the same weight gain issue as I do if he eats too much gluten.
All of these experiences have made me a believer of the gluten free/paleo eating style and I try to convert people all the time, unfortunately it is hard for people to give up their convenience foods and also to through the USDA food guide pyramid out the window...

This is such a little thing, but it does make a difference.  Several months ago my husband and I both went on a diet to lose some weight, eliminating carbs, sugars and most fruit.  So of course, I stopped buying and cooking with wheat and other grains - no more bread, rolls, pasta, cereal, rice, etc.   After a short time both of us noticed that pain we had in our feet - he has plantar fascitis and I have heel pain in one foot, got markedly better.  He also has an old shoulder injury that has flared up again but if he doesn't eat wheat it is much better after a couple of days.  When we have gone off the diet, such as on a short vacation, the pain comes back, then goes away again after we resume it.  Neither of us seems to have particular digestive issues with wheat that many people have but by simply removing it from our diets we reduce the inflammation issues in other parts of our bodies - and thus don't find ourselves reaching for that bottle of aspirin or ibuprofin as often.

Here is my wheat story. Losing the wheat took away acne-like dermititis. For a few decades I have had chronic acne on my scalp, chest, and upper back, and occasionally ears. At best a dermatologist would prescribe me antibiotics which really didn't help and probably worked against me in other ways. It just doesn't make sense one should take antibiotics for the rest of their natural life to do away with a skin condition now found to be caused by the diet.

Now some background. My first foray into low carb diets was the pseudo-low carb diet called South Beach. Low in fats but still without sugars, but kept grains. It worked up to a point but I was hungry all the time so eventually gave up the diet. But the key thing I saw how my body responded and remembered it when 4 years later I discovered paleo style diets.

With paleo diets, major difference was cutting out even grains particularly wheat, while also ramping up the fats. I really didn't have to change anything else in my diet. I was in for a pleasant surprise.

Everything went according to my previous diet attempt - I lost weight and more. Within a week starting I noticed something unusual: I had no more acne on scalp, chest, and upper back!

Now, it could have been any number of things, but through simple experimentation, I am quite sure its narrowed down to the wheat. See once a week I would eat breaded stuffed jalapenos. Within a day of eating them them, acne returned, only to disappear after a few days. Same goes with other breaded foods, thats just the most common food I take in.

With my ever thinning hairline, scalp acne is very noticeable, compared to the lesser public bare upper body, so this is a big deal to me. No more wheat!

Well, I'm a type 1 diabetic. I eliminated wheat after a co-worker told me about the Paleo diet (which I duly researched). That led me to this site, which led me to Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. So not only did I go Paleo, I went low-carb on top of it, cheat and have milk (heavy cream really), and have never been in better health.

I lost weight and became positively svelt. I had psoriasis on my elbows which went away completely, and my insulin usage dropped to a mere fraction of what it was before. I feel good, and my cholesterol et al are great.

Until lunchtime today. I ate some pre-packaged meatballs (I'd had other flavours of meatballs from the same company before) and started feeling ill. I checked my blood glucose an hour after eating and it was up to 280!!!! I double checked the package from the meatballs and still didn't see anything in the ingredients, until on the opposite side, in small print, I saw "contains wheat". What does wheat do? It spikes your blood sugar, makes you ill, and it does it fast. Quitting wheat was much slower than getting beaten up by in during an accidental relapse.

Hello,

My story with cutting out wheat/flour/sugar/rice etc. is not nearly as dramatic as the majority of yours. Something very different has happened to me.

I have alway suffered from milk allergies (ice cream, custard too). If I eat ice cream or drink milk, my sinuses immediately begining draining down my throat and the hacking and caughing ensues. A 'phlegmy' sore throat is then present  for 2 weeks and a lot of 'hacking up' that drainage that goes down.

I elminated wheat/flour/sugar/rice and enjoyed moderate weight loss. After 3 months, I had a hankering for a glass of milk. Knowing that I would suffer, I drank the milk (cause I love  the stuff). No adverse reaction. I do not drink much, but do enjoy milk from time to time with no negative side effects. I actually did not make the connection until I fell off the wagon a few month slater and began eating wheat/flour/sugar/rice and the milk problems immediately returned.

I am new to this site, but for me, when I go off of wheat, etc. and stay off of it for more than 2.5 months my milk allergies completely disappear.

Best,
James

Many blogs like this cover subjects that can’t be found in magazines and newspapers. I don’t know how we got by 10 years ago with just newspapers and magazines. His was really a fascinating topic, I'm very fortunate to have the ability to come to your blog and I'll bookmark this web page in order that I may come again one other time

Ellis,

The study was done on rats. A low carb diet isn't a natural diet for rats to my knowledge. Nor does the article mention what sources of food the mice were fed. It makes a huge difference if the mice were fed hydrogenated soy oil as opposed to a natural fat. Besides, I always find it interesting to see who's behind a study: "Shi-Yin Foo is a trainee of the Clinical Investigators Training Program, jointly sponsored by BIDMC and Harvard/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Sciences and Technology in collaboration with Pfizer Inc. and Merck and Co."

Hi James,

Yeah, I too thought I was lactose intolerant (see my story above) until I gave up wheat and can now tolerate it. This blog post explains why: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/search/label/Wheat%20and%20lactose%20%281%29

An anecdote regarding my reducing and finally eliminating wheat from my diet: I did not eat any wheat for four to six weeks (I do not recall exactly how long). But, I really missed wheat and I now think I was/am addicted to it.

So, one late afternoon I thought I would try some bread; I ate an entire loaf of white bread. The taste and texture were nothing special – bland really; and it was not filling.  Around 11:00 pm, I went to bed and noticed I was a bit gassy – I had some long and loud odorless flatulence. Early the next morning, I had some more long and loud odorless flatulence (it may have woken me).  The rest of the entire consisted of a LOT of very, very, VERY frequent long and loud odorless flatulence! It lasted ALL DAY. I did not go any where – I had no control over the frequent long and loud odorless flatulence.   It probably occurred an average of once every 15 minutes or so; but it was random and unpredictable. It also extended into the next day!

I have tried wheat from time to time since then, and always with the same result – flatulence.  But, there does seem to be a threshold level – the more wheat, the more flatulence.

My husband and I are both nurses.  He had a heart attack 9 years ago at age 48 (also on Vioxx) and I was diagnosed T2DM 2 years ago.  My blood sugar has steadily risen to the point of being on meds.  On his last visit to the cardiologist, he was told he had pattern B LDL.  The VAP showed about 70% small particles.  HDL_35,tri-138,LDL-74 Lp(a) -10 This is on 2 grams of Niaspan daily, 2 gms fish oil and a load of antioxidants.    He takes Lipitor 10 mg.  We came across your blog and everything just seemed to make sense .  We started about 3 weeks ago eliminating sugar, starches and grains.  We already had eliminated transfats  and polyunsaturated oils.   The cardiologist also increased the Niaspan by 500 mg as well.  In that time span we have both lost weight, him about 15 lbs and me about 10.  My blood sugar decreased in the morning from 220s on meds to around 150 (off meds!).  I did have one piece of bacon bread on Mother's day and FBS the next day was 189.  I love that I don't count anything and  am never hungry.  Last week I almost had to make myself eat.  My husband gets another VAP in two and a half months.  We are anxious to see how this all works out but are amazed at what just three weeks has done.

Exactly my experience.

Nice post!  Thank you!

I forgot to mention that I also have had an inability to control B/P with near syncopy and hypertension 220s/120s now somewhat controlled on 4 meds after 8 years of different meds).  I also have gout which while reading this blog may be related to the acidifying properties of the wheat?

Hi, Chris--

Would you be willing to share your story with an editor at Rodale? If so, I'd be grateful. Let me know and I will pass on your email address.

Sorry this is lengthy but what started out as a diet change to lose weight to help with my lower back pain actually improved my health over all. I hope people who have asthma will be inspired by improvements.

http://www.infradead.org/~jsimmons/health/health.html

I have Hashimoto's. Last July I cut gluten from my diet, and suddenly the medication I took became too much for my body. Within a week, I went hyperthyroid. At the time, I was on 100mcg/day of Levoxyl. Since then, the dose I need to feel great (even better than before I cut wheat) has dropped—now I'm on 75mcg/Tirosint and 5-10mcg Cytomel/day. In addition, I was an ultrarunner for years, and yet I still had a small wheat belly. That has basically disappeared, despite the fact that my running mileage has dropped to 1/4 of what it used to be. My energy level has leveled out and is stable (and great) all day long—also a result of cutting wheat.

The idea of eliminating wheat from my diet was in the book Eat Right for Your Type by Dr. Peter Dadamo. After planting that piece of information in my mind I became more conscious of wheat and my reactions to it. I recognized very low spells of depression and fatigue shortly after eating bread and made a connection and eventually learned to avoid wheat (It only took about ten years!). After finding out I had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, I suspected all gluten could be a problem and removed it from my diet completely. Immediately my lifetime of anxiety and depression lifted,  my knees felt 100% better and my sinuses and headaches cleared up. I wasn't one of the lucky ones that lost weight but my digestion was much better. Unfortunately, I was not able to stop my autoimmune illness but my quality of life improved 100%. When I tell others about gluten and what it can do most people comment on how they love it so much and don't think they can or want to give it up, but a few have tried gluten elimination with great results. I am amazed at the addictive power of gluten. If it were not for the immediate problems I have when eating it, I would be back in its grip too, but it isn't worth the pain and there are other much better foods my body can process. I am also amazed how gluten has saturated the food industry and not surprised that many people are having more and more problems because of it.

Hello, Dr. Davis,

I don't have a gluten/lipid story to share.  My story is concerning autoimmune problems.   I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis in the early 1990s.  I also had chronic heartburn, IBS-type symptoms, eczema, and migraine-like headaches.   I have never been overweight, and tend to get underweight too easily.

In the early 1990s, too, we decided to really endorse the "healthy" whole grain diet.  We bought a grain grinder, sacks of various whole grains, mostly gluten grains, an automatic bread maker,  and a pasta maker.  And of course, because breads and pasta made with whole grain is heavy, we added extra gluten to breads, etc.  It was during this time of our "healthy" diet, my autoimmune disorders escalated tremendously, but I had no idea gluten was the major factor in the deterioration of my health.

In February, 2000, my wife bought "Protein Power Lifeplan," by the Drs. Eades.  Chapter six in that book dealt with diet and autoimmune problems, and gluten was discussed.   We decided to go gluten-free.  

To make a long story short, by the end of March, I no longer had the terrible, migraine-like headaches that would last days on end.  My chronic heartburn and IBS-like symptoms disappeared.  But, it took about six and half months for my last AS flare-up in October, 2000.  My wife found information from a study done in Italy about gluten and autoimmune thyroid disease, and one of the bits of information that came out in that report is that it takes about six months for triggered antibodies to go away once the offending substance is removed.  In my case, the offending substance was gluten.  I have been flare-up free since October, 2000.  My autoimmune problems are in total remission....as long as I remain gluten-free.  If only we would have known of the gluten connection to my autoimmune disorders, I would never have had to experience the escalation and the permanent calcium scarring of my ligaments, etc. from doing the supposed "healthy" whole grain diet.  

We are very passionate about the gluten/autoimmune connection, and we try to share my experience with anyone who has obvious autoimmune problems or other chronic health problems.  Sadly, the medical establishment doesn't understand that celiac disease is not the only disorder associated with gluten intolerance, and people with non-celiac gluten intolerance are being told by their doctors that if their celiac test is "negative," they don't have gluten intolerance.   This only ends up with lots of people suffering chronic health problems that may be totally alleviated if only they would do a truly gluten-free diet.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story about gluten intolerance.

I weighed over 280lbs. when my son was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's syndrome. We spoke with many Doctors in my area before we found a clinic that had options other then Meds. A Gluten and Casein free diet was prescribed and both me and my wife went GFCF for support.

After a month or so I noticed my weight was dropping. My clothes were fitting looser and people at work started to ask if I had lost weight. Lucky for me I stated talking to a woman at work that had plenty of info on low-carb and "Paleo" nutrition. I read Gary Taubes and Robb Wolf and decided to take a 30 Paleo challenge. The weight started to melt off. After 5-6 months I've dropped about 50lbs. to 234. The wife and kids, who have no weight problems are thriving and enjoying eating this diet that excludes sugar, grains and legumes and gets plenty of good fats and dense calories from free-range eggs, grass-feed animals, fruits and plenty of veggies.

I still have a long way to go but after loosing the weight I have a natural urge to exercise, I don't eat outside of meal times and never, ever feel hungry. Carbs are an addiction as best I can tell.

Last week I had blood work done and my Doctor was alarmed at my total cholesterol. He suggested statins, at which I laughed. "I'm 36" I said! "This is what I was thought in school" he said. If my numbers don't fall in three months, he will be referring me to a cardiologist for a stress test.

I'm glad to have found this website, it's great to find a Doctor ready to speak the truth about cholesterol. I will make it a point to read your blog. Thanks.

Two years ago, I embarked on the South Beach Diet to lose some weight before going on vacation. For the first time since menarche, I didn't have any symptoms of dysmenorrhea during the first phase (sugar and grain-free). I thought it was due to elimination of sugar but the symptoms reappeared in the second phase when I reintroduced grains, and I also regained some of the weight I'd lost in the first phase. That's when I searched for grain-free diets on the internet and learned about paleo and primal diets. Through elimination, I found out that wheat was causing my dysmenorrhea.

The mother of all wheat elimination stories,

Due to a construction project our family's diet was constricted.  Still very healthy stuff.  "Good" cereals for breakfast.   Sandwitches on "healthy" bread for lunch.  Whole wheat pasta a couple times a week and easier dinners.  Cookies and crackers for snacks.  

After the project wraps up my wife is diagnosed with breast cancer and my youngest contracts a severe movement disorder blamed rightfully so on the staph germ.  Yes, slightly more to the story.  My wife was also on "the pill".

Wheat was the third item eliminated in my daughters diet.  Her improvement was immediate.  Yet being the investigator I remembered that my daughter could walk into the hospital, but just three days later she could not walk out.  OBVIOUS  malnutrition due to scans and delays in meals due to tests.   So why couldn't my daughter make it a couple weeks before having serious difficulties from lack of nutrition?  She had been subject to subtle malnutrition all along.  Gluten forms a mucoid plaque causing the important nutrients from real food to get passed right on by.  

Just check out celiac.org.  See all of the health manifestations of celiac disease.   It is not a disease,  it is a consequence of too much wheat and other glutens.  Most cheap and many "premium" foods add cheap gluten thickeners.

So with wheat gone my daughter is testing into the gifted program.   Yes she is still vulnerable to staph, probably for several years.  The sheath on her nervous system was compromised by years of subtle malnutrition.  My wife looks better than most 43 year olds.  Very slim and strong.  

The ultimate proof.  After a year and a half my blood pressure is very good.  I eat as much salt as I want.  My vision is excellent, but my night vision has returned to superior.  No sensitivity to car lights at night.  My total chol. is nearing good numbers.   No Muscle Cramps.  No teeth sensitivity to ice cream or anything for that matter.   No waking at 3am to go to the bathroom.

Very interesting point:  Do you think people in the medical profession have any interest in this (excluding Dr. Davis)?   Oh H... No.  Why?  Because they already know!

Why do you suppose a lowly turtle can live to 400 years?  Are they somehow superior to us.  No.  They consume fewer poisons.  Gluten and wheat are the biggest of our poisons.  Responsible for at least 4 dozen major illnesses as well as the common cold, flu, allergies.  All of it.

The subtle malnutrition from gluten weakens All Tissues.  All as in each and every.  Your skin, veins, eyes, brain, nerves, heart.  Get it?  Weak tissue = health problems.  

Want to cure medicare?  Outlaw wheat, barley, and rye.

After reading Arthur De Vany's "The New Evolution Diet", I was skeptical about it's premises. I am a Univ. of Texas trained Pharm.D. and the book's ideas seemed to fly in the face of my "training".  However, I decided to give it a try. It has been 5 months now and I am 25 lbs lighter and feel like I am 21 again (I am now 33). I remember when ketosis occurred like it was yesterday because it was a feeling I had never experienced. I lost any significant hunger for 2 weeks! I felt I was force-feeding myself and in that time lost an entire pant size. My first wheat rechallenge came when friends were visiting and they wanted pizza. I decided to go ahead and on that occasion I ate ravenously and felt as if I had taken amphetamines. It was not enjoyable and strange. Now, I don't touch the stuff, nor sugar, nor veggie/seed oils. My only problem now is that this new perspective has placed me at odds with the medical establishment and has made my consultations regarding drugs and diet that much more difficult.

October4th of 2010 I was a type 2 diabetic with an a1c of 9.8 and a blood sugar level of 280 (or higher).  I was put on medication that felt like it was going to kill me.  I was at 247 pounds (5' 7").  Basically, nothing in my body was working and I was going to die soon.  The thing I missed the most was the intimacy with my wife.  I was 61 and didn't want to finish things off like this.  I picked something that was important to me and made it my focus to get healthier.  Silly as it may sound, it was sex with my wife.

First thing was I stopped taking the blood sugar medication.  I totally quit eating certain foods, the first being anything wheat or part wheat.  I began to limit my (good) carb intake to about 60 grams total a day and increased my good fat and good protein intake.  During this time I checked my blood sugar level with a meter as often as 12 times a day.  I began to learn what foods did to my blood sugar level.  I kept track and eventually developed a daily eating plan that started to control my sugar level.  I slowly added exercise to the plan.

May 29th - Today my weight is at 178, my a1c is at 5.5, and average blood sugar levels around 100.  Cholesterol and other blood levels are fantastic.  My doctor is totally amazed that this all came about without medication and before any major damage happened to "body parts."

The biggest thing affecting me was wheat related foods.  For me it's like time bomb...I can have a muffin and within the hour my blood sugar goes too high.  I realize that my body is not working (and won't) like a non-diabetic any longer but I have taken control of my lifestyle to the point where I feel great and all of my labs are right where they should be.

My new eating style isn't a restrictive diet but the right diet...one everyone should have.  I even had some restaurants where I live add new "type 2"  options  to their menus...one of them a bakery.

I like your site and have sent bookmarks to other friends.

And yes, things couldn't be better with my wife!

Tom

Just came across your blog at the recommendation of a friend. Look forward to your book.  My wheat story is probably like many others, but unfortunately, still not well-know enough! In a nutshell:  onset of bloating and mild reflux in about summer 2006, not long after dx of autoimmune thyroid disorder. Endoscopy confirmed esophagitis, but I was just given an antacid.  Sx waxed and waned over the next several years until there was daily reflux with sore throat and inability to take a deep breath (which I now know was due to inflammation). My own research suggested gluten intolerance, confirmed by stool testing, with 100% resolution going gluten free.  My TSH came WAY down, my sleep, mood, energy and libido are all better. I think my joints feel looser. I'm on a crusade.... keep posting your posts!

I ran across your site and saw you are looking for stories about wheat/gluten.

Here is mine. It was written as a story for my blog.... PT Courses.
This is the story of a family that lives in Denmark. There is a father, a mother and a son. The son, who is filled with energy, likes to play outside quite a lot.

The mother grew up in a struggling family and the food they ate reflected that. Oatmeal and bread were eaten quite a lot. Her mother worked and saved money in many ways. As a girl the mother was active and participated in many of the typical Danish activities. She would sometimes bike from Farum to Gilleleje. There she would go to the beach and visit her grandmother.

The father also came from a struggling family. Both his parents worked. He had the advantage of living outside the city for parts of his life and around the water during other parts of his life. This meant wild game and fish were on the table quite often. There were times during his upbringing when raw milk was on the table and other times when large amounts of freshly caught shrimp, crabs and fish were eaten. There were other times when food was scarce and macaroni and cheese were a staple of the diet. Oatmeal was another.

The father was a meat eater, with a capital M, who changed his ways when he moved to Denmark. He tried to learn from the Danish ways and traditions. He learned to drink wine instead of  "jack and coke." He was told that red meat was bad for him, so he started eating white meat as much as possible. The same thing happened with oats, he learned to eat oats with milk poured over them because it was supposed to be good for him. Being active and having to do labour intensive work kept him in shape.

When he became divorced, he started karate again to help cope with the stress of his divorce and being alone in Denmark.

After a few years he met his second wife. She was the opposite of his first in almost every possible way. This was actually when he started to learn that what he felt was good for him in Texas was good for him in Denmark. All the psychology books started to help him question why he did what he did. Reading several book a week open many doors. He started to see new useful information every where he looked.

The couple was very happy together. At some point in time, being a weekend mother to the father's daughter made the mother want to have child of her own. They had a boy. Life went on, the family struggle but they were happy.

Along the way the father developed asthma. He stopped working as a shoemaker and found other ways to make a living. The mother became a reflexologist who had customers on the side as well as having a normal 8:00 to 5:00 job.

It was lucky for the father that his wife was a reflexologist. She helped to keep his asthma at bay so he could make his way through life and still be active with martial arts. He often wonder what was going on with his body. He felt damned. The doctors said just take the medicine and you will be ok. His wife helped him with all the pain in his joint with a witches concoction of garlic and alcohol that he took every day.The pain in all his joint went away for a while.

Head aches became the norm. He developed hay fever. Once again his wife stepped in and help him. She had the same problem a large part of her life as well as an allergy. It showed it self, via the skin on her hands. She had always had this problem, so it was just a normal part of life. She was a gentle soul and she simply went on with life.

The father, on the other hand, had a temper. He would become angry and would have to do something about what ever the problem was to feel like there was some form of control in the increasingly large collection of problems. The mounting physical problem were getting to be too much. Something had to be changed.

Some years later, the family had more or less stayed in the same situation but now the boy was having problems with his joints. His hip joint would fill with fluid and it would have to be removed. It was a traumatic and painful experience for the boy. The needle that was jabbed into his hip was more the size of a garden hose than a needle. He trusted his parents when he was told that it was for the best and it would help make the pain go away.  His leg would come back into place and he could use it again.

Once again the doctors said: “take these pills” they will help. They could not say why his body was attacking itself. They said that he might out grow the problem. The family would have to just wait and see. The little boy had to be careful not to jump too much and run too much. He felt imprisoned. The family did what they could to cope.

It's later in their lives now and the situation has changed, the father had worked behind the scenes to figure out what was going on. Being surrounded by people who thought in different way helped. Having learned that acupuncture had fixed the pain issues from a back injury at work helped him understand more. The doctors at the hospital could not do any thing to help. Learning that one doctor didn’t really think he had asthma, while another did, made him think even more. "Do they know anything after all?" Knowing the power of body and mind from martial arts helped once again to make him think out of the box. The many talks the parents had provoked quite a few thoughts, which help the family today.

Jumping forward in time to present time, the situation is better. The boy has only growing pains, which are normal when kids grow. His mother and father massage his calves when it hurts too much to sleep. He jumps, runs, and climbs trees which are too high for the parents peace of mind. His skin problem are much better. The dark bags under his eyes are gone.

The mother has skin problems still but they are getting better by the day. She can eat nuts without her skin giving her problems if she is careful about the amount. She doesn’t train more. In fact she bikes to work less at the moment. She has lost weight and she feels much better.

The father has lost weight as well, he is now 92 kg. He likes the fact that his wife says that he has the body of a man half his age. He is 45, a statement like that is very good for his ego. His asthma is much better, he doesn’t have migraines any more, he has stopped having all the pains in his joints. Even the pain in his hand, that comes from braking boards when he trained karate, are gone. The gas in his stomach is gone. His wife is very happy about that. Nobody wants to sleep beside a fart machine, do they? The whole family enjoys the fact that hay fever is no longer such a problem.

The man wonders why the Danish doctors don’t have the information which has made such a drastic change in his life. Gluten is bad for you! Why do they avoid all the research on the subject? He knows that the reason that the government agencies in Denmark and around the world don’t want to support the truth is that there is a lot of money involved.

The family you just read about is my family. All of what you read is true. We are not a paleo family, but we are moving closer every day.

Hi Dr. Davis, I'd like to share my experience.  I was 92kg, and had some abdominal distension - IBS symptoms my doc said were a chronic disease I had to treat with clebopride for ever (being 30 yrs old by then). I gave up wheat and all grains (except for some ocassional rice) and also all dairy products, after reading the research of Dr. Jean Seignalet  about 7 years ago. The change was all sudden and wonderful. I lost 10kg in about two months, losing another four in the following year to get a stable 78kg for my 1,87m height. The abdominal problems, slow digestion, etc, dissapeared forever without any medication. My mild psoriasis dissapeared as well. It has been a change for life.  In the last six months I have moved to introducing more meat and fat to low carb, feeling even better.  I get very angry when I see the USDA and other government agencies inducing people to eat grains.  Thanks a lot.

I eliminated wheat and other gluten sources 7 months ago.  The effects were immediate and continue to be dramatic.  55 pounds lost (I looked like that kid in your former blog post on "Wheat Belly"), blood pressure dramatically reduced, joint stiffness gone, skin cleared up and seasonal allergies GONE.  The last one just blows me away, pollen so thick this year it's sticking in my throat and I had suffered so in years past.

What else can be said.  I wish Atkins had never existed because any attempt to explain what has happened to me is met with people thinking this is what I am doing when in fact it is the whole primal/paleo thing.  Hard to package and sell a negative so information related to eliminating gluten remains almost cultish, a sin really.

Shortly after my 31st birthday I had a physical followed up with a cholesterol test. My HDL and LDL levels were fine, but my triglycerides were at 1168. This what the day I learned what triglycerides are. My doctor wanted me to go on a fibrate immediately, but I asked her a)if I could get a retest where I was sure I had fasted correctly (and them some!) and b)if I still had a problem, what I could do in my lifestyle to correct this instead of taking medication.

Well, it looks like an error lost the other few paragraphs, so I will sum it up:
Retest was at a still alarming 600. I found your site and removed grains, sugar, and cut down to about 1 drink of hard liquor a week.

After 3 months, my blood pressure was normal, I'd lost 40 pounds, and my triglycerides were at 168. Still a little to go, but my doctor was amazed at the results.

Now I just have to work to figure out new meals that work within the way I eat. I will eat like this for the rest of my life.

I accidentally went wheat free for two years in the 1960's.  I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to an island of 400 people in the western Pacific, where the people ate breadfruit, coconut, and fish.  I ate the same, and without trying to got down to a good weight.  There was no wheel on the island, much less a scale, so I'm not sure how much weight I lost.  The people seemed healthy, with lots of very old people.  I went back to the island decades later, and they now have imported food and rampant obesity.  

It puzzles me why the government thinks Americans need grain on their plate, since lots of cultures don't have it and don't have any obvious health consequences from grain deficiency, apart from the fact that they don't tend to overweight.

Gabriel,
Welcome to reality!

Wheat-free communion bread:

I didn't take communion at church for several weeks after discovering I was wheat intolerant.

Actually, the first Sunday I was still in wheat withdrawal and was really crabby, so I stayed home so as not to have to face, and abstain from, communion bread and all those wheaty cookies at coffee hour afterwards. The next morning, day number six with no wheat, was the day I woke up feeling wonderful and energetic, and began to celebrate the advantages of a wheat-free life.

I did abstain for the next few weeks. Then I thought, "One little piece of wheat bread won't hurt me," and I took communion for three weeks. Tiredness sneaked up on me gradually, and I started to get itchy patches on my skin again, and my breathing got huffy...one little piece of wheat bread per week was a bad idea.

So I checked with our priest and got the okay to approach the parish bread baker about trying a gluten-free bread mix for the communion loaves. He was amenable, and produced some lovely round loaves from a box of gluten-free sandwich bread mix that I found at the grocery store. The bread is a bit crumblier than wheat bread, so it has to be handled carefully. I felt very touched that the whole congregation was joining me in this.

A few weeks after we started using the new kind of bread, there was a baptism and the baby's visiting godmother-to-be asked one of the ushers if we had any gluten-free communion wafers and could one please be set aside for her. She was startled and pleased by the answer, "Our whole loaf is gluten-free."

This reminded me that I should anticipate what to do if I visited another church. I got on the internet and found that a company called Ener-G Foods makes gluten-free communion wafers. I ordered a packet of fifty of them. They're made out of potato and rice flour, and are a little bigger and darker than the usual wheat wafers.

Now before I visit another church I call ahead, and if they don't have gluten-free wafers I ask if it's OK if I bring one for myself. I put one of the wafers into a baggie and carry it in a covered glass container (my favorite Pyrex again--this time the 1-cup size*) to protect it from breaking--they're fragile. I arrive fifteen minutes early, find the sacristy, introduce myself and hand over the wafer to be put on the little plate with the others, then find the priest and introduce myself so my face will be familiar at the altar rail.

I've done this at three churches so far and been welcomed at each one. Someday I'd love to call somewhere and find out that they already have gluten-free bread or wafers. I feel like a pioneer, an ambassador for the next person with the same need.

And I take a small bag of almonds to munch on at coffee hour.

It's always worth the trouble to stay wheat-free.

Wow! I hadn't checked back in a few weeks and am thoroughly impressed--and grateful--at the incredible stories!
These stories are so wonderful and compelling that I will be posting many of them on the blog as a feature. Sorry, but I used up the books I was going to give out for using the stories with the Rodale editors. However, perhaps we should do this again in future.