Back with episode 54. I was in the middle of another caffeine detox when we recorded this episode so please pardon my low energy although I think Robb more than made up for it.
Download a transcript of Episode 54
Show Topics:
- Twinkie Diet
- Unknown and Unknowable
- Sugar Binge
- Roundworm Research
- Hashimoto’s Asymptomatic
- Ulcer & Paleo
- Sugar Free Electrolyte Solution
- Pastured Pork
- Saturate Fat
- Low Carb & Cortisol Production
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Nuts / Legumes / Nightshades
Show Notes – The_Paleo_Solution_Episode_54
Download episode here.
Robb/ Andy,
Thanks for all the hard work and dedication to spreading the good word.
I recently read an article about Mike Swick (the fighter) having a probelm with esophageal spasms. Additionally, I have recently had a friend encounter some of the same problems. My intuition would lead me to believe this may be an auto-immune issue that could be solved by avoiding any gluten or other irritants. Any thoughts or input would be much appreciated.
I have a friend who has esophageal spasms from sunflower seeds or sunflower seed oil. Even one seed will trigger it…
Hey robb,
Haven’t listened to this ep yet, I’ll probably listen to it on the way to work tomorrow.
I saw this article linked to from martin b, written by lyle: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/carbohydrate-intake-and-depression-qa.html, saying how low carb can make depression symptoms worse. I know you have mentioned low carbs helping depression, and lyle’s article is quite sciencey, above my layman comprehension, does the science of what he’s saying make sense? Do you agree with his conclusions?
I think martin mentioned people struggling more with low carbs in winter, and I know you mention higher carb intake over winter like in lights out, but what would you say about people prone to depression, should they eat a higher carb and lower protein diet?
Thanks
Josh
Josh-
Lights out recommends low barb in the winter. This has been a lifesaver for me. Lyle acknowledges in that piece that there are many moving parts to this. I’d tinker and see what works for you as there are studies and anecdotes on both sides of this that (to me) point to some individual variances.
When Robb drops the F-bomb at 9:30, I was right there with him.
Professor Mark Haub is a charlatan, who will more than likely gain back every pound he lost and then some.
“Food Deserts” exist because there’s little demand in the urban marketplace for quality meats and vegetables, because nutritionists like Haub have been pushing a cheap grain heavy semi-vegetarian diet on those living in poverty for decades. Studies have linked government assistance programs to increased rates of obesity. Now Haub wants to double down on that by telling people they can eat whatever they wants, as long as they stay hypo-caloric?
What an irresponsible tool.
Hey Robb, Thanks for the podcasts, as someone who is asymptomatic Hashimoto’s and Celiac, the constant reinforcement helps immensely. I just wanted to comment to the woman who was asymptomatic. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s when I was 16, almost 30 years ago, and have never had a symptom, in fact, I always wondered about people who said they were miserable when their thyroid levels were off. I was also diagnosed with Celiac a little over a year ago, again, no symptoms, other than my thyroid levels going out of whack. I decided in July to see if gluten would have any effect after being free of it for about 9 months. Nothing. Absolutely no physical symptoms. Apparently, I’m one of the lucky ones….but not having symptoms, also makes it harder to understand the reality of the disease. It also makes me wonder just how many people are out there with these types of diseases and no symptoms, I just have a hard time believing that I’m really that special and unique in this. I guess I just want to say, just because you don’t have the symptoms, doesn’t mean the disease is not there.
Again, thanks for the podcasts and website as someone who doesn’t feel the effects when things are off, staying on the high road is more difficult. It’s the information and reinforcement of that information that helps keep me on the straight and narrow, so to speak!
Ellen-
Really interesting, thanks.
Ellen,
I too have Hashimotos with no symptoms. I wouldn’t have discovered it had I not had a general checkup last year and my doctor ticked almost every blood test on the form! I wonder if there are a lot people out there with anti-bodies who have never been tested, and probably never will until their thyroid is destroyed enough that they get symptoms. The only time I actually started having thyroid symptoms was when I took a lot of iodine. Now that I’ve stopped it I feel normal. I imagine my thyroid anti-bodies have probably been high for many years, given that my other auto-immune issues surfaced at about the age of 18. I’ll never know.
Cutting gluten completely 18 months ago cleared up auto-immune joint issues, however gut wise the only symptom I ever had was mild constipation. But that I found, is also linked to dairy protein.
I get no symptoms with small gluten cheats, – what keeps me strict is the link between thyroid antibodies and gluten. Since strictly cutting gluten my anti-bodies have dropped.
I have Hashimoto’s too, but I’m not lucky enough to be asymptomatic!
My antibodies aren’t even very high, but that can be from an overall immune system deficiency- which is why someone can have low TPO Ab and feel like crap while someone else has higher numbers and doesn’t feel as bad! Basically, their immune system is too weak to crank out the antibodies.
There is definitely a link between gluten intolerance and Hashi’s (and a link between Hashi’s, Celiac, PCOS, Sjogren’s, Antiphospholipid Syndrome, Rheumatoid Arthritis- the list goes on…)
I’ve been learning a lot about autoimmune balancing through the work of Datis Kharrazian. Dr. Kharrazian treats Hashimoto’s not as a thyroid disease but as an autoimmune condition. If you only treat TSH levels, the immune system can still be destroying other body tissues.
He has pioneered a Hashimoto’s protocol that works through balancing whichever arm of the immune system is dominant (by stimulating the opposite arm) and also addresses sub-types of thyroid problems (conversion, cellular resistance, insulin resistance, cortisol, etc). He also delves into the role of blood sugar regulation, liver health, heavy metals/haptens/antigens and gut health in relation to autoimmune disease. It’s fascinating stuff!
I have to say that in the few weeks I’ve been treated, I can tell a big difference in energy levels, hair loss, brain fog, etc. I’m currently on D3, a glutathione/SOD transdermal cream and a th2 boosting polyphenol combo (to suppress my dominant th1 pathway). No thyroid formulas or meds involved.
Robb- it would be awesome if you could look into Kharrazian’s work- you might be able to pick his brain about the asymptomatic Hashimoto’s. He’s really so far ahead of the game when it comes to Hashimoto’s and the diet he recommends is gluten-free, low carb (he does make a passing mention of Paleo in his book- I wish he’d stress it more!)
Erin-
I’ll do a reach out. His book is outstanding.
Robb/Andy,
I eat mostly paleo, workout and seem to basically be your average listener/reader with no real health problems. However, I seem to always have a bit of a metallic taste in mouth. At first I hoped it might be ketosis, but it didn’t disappear after a night of drinking. The research I’ve done seems to suggest it’s probably a deficiency in one of the metals. From what I’m aware of, the two metal supplements you’ve suggested are ZMA and Natural Calm. Which would you suggest trying?
Thanks,
Adam
Both! Watch out for the trots from the magnesium though.
hey guys,
you said something i found very interesting about mixing up your workouts with a combination of lifting/movnat, o-lifting, sprinting/conditioning, and possibly gymnastics (could be movnat as well). that sounds great to me, and intuitively makes a lot of sense, but for one thing… time.
i’ve been doing 5/3/1 for a couple of months (3 weeks on, 1 week deloaded), which includes some sprinting/swimming in my case, and 4 days of core lifts and 2 assistance lifts (it’s similar to the leangains stuff in that sense, as well, i’d say). i was coming off of doing 3on1off mainsite WODs, which predictably was killing me at the time, and now i’m in much more of a minimum input maximum output mindset, and i try to keep my workouts short (sub 45 minutes, ~20 minutes for the sprinting), even though they spread across 5 days per week, and generally i like what i’m doing, though on occasion i miss the metcon beatdown feeling of accomplishment.
so i guess, how could i fit everything in without overtraining? would a weekly o-lift session, 2 weekly weightlifting sessions (combining say deads/shoulder press & chin-up/squat), a weekly sprint and some kind of something else be sufficient (i have yet to figure out how to do movnat stuff at home or my school gym)? i hate to say it but is that sorta… paleo? i don’t have specific goals like you were mentioning, but i actually just really like feeling strong, fast, and capable in our squishy, lazy, modern world.
anyways, i’m really interested in your thoughts on this. the eating thing has been pretty easy for me to accomplish, sleep is good, stress is ridiculous (grad school… unsurprising, at least), but this idea of optimal training is really starting to pique my interest.
thanks for all your consideration dudes,
adam
Show Topics:
Twinkie Diet 2.21
Unknown and Unknowable 11.31
Sugar Binge 21.08
Roundworm Research 30.17
Hashimoto’s Asymptomatic 34.13
Ulcer & Paleo 37.25
Sugar Free Electrolyte Solution 40.34
Pastured Pork 43.08
Saturate Fat 48.09
Low Carb & Cortisol Production 51.12
Cystic Fibrosis 58.44
Nuts / Legumes / Nightshades 1.02.10
Mark! Email me your sweatshirt size.
Man, I was hoping to hear something else on that Sugar Binge question… for as much as I know and as well as I eat 99% of the time, sugar is still my downfall when it happens And the instances get fewer and farther between as I get older and wiser. I couldn’t really care less about bread, pasta, grains, etc. anymore. In fact, imagining biting into a piece of bread isn’t even enticing – bread really has no taste without butter, oil, sugar, etc. It’s more of a texture thing really. But somehow, those cute little chocolate covered gummy bears at my local candy store call my name when the sun isn’t shining. I blame the weather… I can’t really imagine getting such a hankering for the sugar on a beautiful, sunny SF day. All that said, I agree that the best advice to avoid that problem is to not be there. If I don’t even start, it’s a non-issue. And if I DO fall down that rabbit hole, starting over the next day with a solid protein and fat breakfast really presses the reset button nicely.
All that said, great episode. I’m really interested on the asymptomatic thyroid issue so I’d love to hear the followup to that as well.
Diane @ Balanced Bites
Holy Cats!!
Didn’t expect to see my comment/question show up in the podcast! I’m honored, BUT… Robb, I have to disagree again, at least on one point. The Sodium-Glucose Co-transporter is a symporter- the glucose and sodium go the same direction. I’ve tried to research the role of the transporter in rehydration a bit (a lot of old papers I couldn’t get access to and a lot on cholera induced diarrhea), but it seems like all serious Oral Rehydration Therapies need to contain either glucose and/or glutamine with sodium in order to remedy serious dehydration.
Thanks for inspiring me to crack open my physiology text book.
OK- so I ran into the GI physiology professor on the way out of lab yesterday so I asked him about this. There’s no question that SGLT1 is a symporter (glucose and sodium go together into the cell), however under normal, physiological conditions there are enough other channels that sodium can travel into the cell without using that transporter. I was apparently remembering that in pathological conditions (such as watery diarrhea caused by cholera), when the dehydration is great and the gut is disturbed, you need to utilize SGLT1 and therefore require glucose (or galactose or glutamine) in the rehydration therapy. OK… have I confused everyone yet?
That’s a nice example of biological redundancy. Different systems can accomplish the same things under different situations.
Love this part at 1.07.37, loosely translated:
“a protein centric, higher fat, carbohydrate from non-gut irritating items, balance omega 3 and 6 intake while optimizing micro-nutrient intake”
Hi Robb,
How much does food allergies and Leaky Gut effect hormones? I have very low testosterone level of 105 pg/ml (range is 95-650). I also have found that after I eat eggs, soy, gluten, dairy or nightshades I feel very tired, achy and ill tempered afterwords. Ive felt this way since around 14 yrs old so it was always subscribed to anxiety and depression but as I pull these foods out my anxiety and depression level has dropped significantly. However, my testosterone is still low. I am a 30 year old male and I follow a 4×5 version of Starting Strength, get 9 hrs of sleep a night, and supplement with Natural Calm, vitamin D3, and fish oil. The past month Ive added in Now Foods Super Enzymes (at 5 caps), L-glutamine, quercetin, tumeric, ginger and probiotics (had to go low dose, the acidophilus made me friends with the porcelain thrown).
Estrogen and cortisol level are fine. FSH and LH levels are low.
Thanks Robb, your podcast has been a life saver.
– Paleo Pete
What is your perspective on club soda as a majority of H2O intake? I was never a soda pop drinker prior to paleo, but when I kicked out much of what I lived off of for 35 years, I grabbed onto some pleasures from the neolithic era. Club soda seems pretty innocuous so I indulge. Can you explain if this is a bad thing to enjoy and what could be harmful for taking in just simple old bubbles in water.
We do a lot of mineral water…club soda is likely fine.
On the issue of the person with Hashimoto’s Asymptomatic syndrome, if there was a drastic change in TS could it be that she is lactating? It may have been lower or balanced because it was measured before she was feeding her child. I heard that slip in there but was not discussed. Lactating is a hormonal protocol and perhaps there is something there?
Robb, thanks so much for taking my question! Ellen, so great to hear that someone else is out there with asymptomatic Hashimoto’s…it’s so bizarre.
With an asymptomatic auto-immune condition, do the same rules still hold? I guess that was the unwritten Part II of my question–if I don’t have symptoms, am I allowed eggs and tomatoes?
Thanks again!
If you are asymptomatic with Hashimotos – you are still making anti-bodies, and in my case my TSH is still borderline. I get both my thyroid hormones TSH, T4 and T3, and more importantly my TPO and TG anti-bodies checked regularly to make sure they are going down, which they have been on strict gluten free paleo. The lower the anti-bodies the less damage.
Personally I am egg free and nightshade free, with occasional tomato paste in food. I just want to keep the anti-bodies being active, even though I don’t actually notice any symptoms
Hello Robb,
Had something like the sugar binge last Friday (4 really good macarons and 5-6 chocolate truffles) and something quite amazing happened I thought – I had NO sugar crash for about 18 hours and in fact, elevated energy. Going to have the 2-3 hours of gym on Saturday made me thought going for it might be alright.
I had so much energy that I exercised when I reached home for about 20 minutes just to burn some off because maybe I wouldn’t be able to sleep with all that energy, and I thought it might not be good to let so much excess energy stay in the system.
…and then I went to sleep (it was 3am though, not common). But I woke up 5 hours later possibly due to the biological clock since I woke up at around the time I woke up at for the past days or weeks.
When I woke up, I did not really feel sleepy, and in fact still had all that energy.
At the gym, even though there was a lack of sleep, I lifted 160 instead of the 140 I usually lift and have been lifting for the past weeks. It was way beyond what I’ve been lifting for weeks. At the almost-treadmill (ski thing not sure what it’s called), I felt like I could not stop and just went on and on – double of what I usually do at 22:48 instead of the 10-minute warm-up. And I was at speed 248 pedals per minute instead of the usual 190-200. Crazy!
I felt kind of superhuman, and thought that would be great for marathons.
But I think I shrank after that, even though I lifted weights beyond what I’ve lifted for that day.
Then I went back to look at the effects of excess glucose/energy in your book and saw how it ends up having Glucoseneogenesis. Thought it might be that.
No crash, amazing energy levels that ended maybe 2 hours into gym (about 18 hours after the sugar).
Maybe the paleo-ish diet I’ve been on improved my insulin sensitivity, etc…but what do you think Robb?
Wondering if carb-loading before gym has the same effect without the possible after-effect of Glucoseneogenesis (if it happened) but instead of sugar, have sweet potatoes, yams, etc… (will be trying that)
Also wondering if my body has switched to “carb-mode” from the more ketogenic mode from the weeks of lowish-carb diet, just from one night? Would also like to hear about this aspect of the body if you have things to say about it!
By Paleo-ish I mean no grains for 5-6 weeks – since I went for the 30 days and then more.
Also, have you seen anyone with possibly at least some gluten tolerance and can take maybe one croissant a week without any effects or significant effects? I guess maybe you can’t tell that yet; without anyone on it long enough that you know of.
Thanks Robb!
Jeremy
P.S. Sorry for the insane amount of questions!(if it’s insane) Hopefully it’s questions that others will find great to hear what you have to say about them!
Great Podcast!
I have two items I would like to hear your opinion on. The first one is Martin’s Berkhan Leangains. Not really his training protocol but moreso on his nutrition aspect, also assuming his program is followed to Paleo standards with higher carbs comming from yams, squashes, etc…Is this something that is healthy in the longterm? (I know your crazy busy so a yes/no would be great!)
Also, and this may hit closer to home for you. My BJJ S&C is based around Wendlers amazing 5,3,1 program. Next month my Deadlift is going to go over 400 pounds, Back Squat over 370, Press 185, and Weighted Pull Up at 125…I weight 180-185. I like lifting alot but when is it enough? I am one of the, if not the, strongest guys on the mats and BJJ is not really a “strength” sport. I am into mat performance, longevity of training, and staying lean. I believe it was Ripp who said something along the lines that strength training beyond intermediate levels is pointless if your not in a strength sport because of programming and recovery involved in more advanced strength levels? So, in your opinion when is enough strength enough strength, and when does it begin to not be worth the effort to progress and just maintain? Also, I dont have the time or recovery ability to roll every single day…4 times a week rolling and two days strength training is a great balance for me and keeps me from overtraining, so more “mat time” instead of lifting would shoot cortisol out my ears, funk my sleep cause class goes till 8, and throw me close to overtraining!
Thanks for the imput, hope your Jits is going well and keep rolling!
Just a comment on an interesting coincidence and a thank you for the great work. Just a couple days ago I was working on translation of an American text into Swedish and Twinkies were mentioned. Living in Sweden I didn’t really know what they were so started googling, found out and also learned about the Twinkie diet study and of course thought “I wonder what Robb Wolf would have to say about this”. Today this episode showed up in my iTunes and now I know the answer. You’re invaluable!
Hi Robb.
Not sure if this is the appropriate place for this, I tried the podcast, but it probably isn’t a popular enough question to make it on there.
I am a 25 year old male. In September of 2009 I developed chronic hives. I continue to have them to this day. This is the second time I have had a bout with chronic hives. The first being three years ago. At that time they lasted about four months, and eventually went away with NAET acupuncture treatment.
Over the course of the last year, I have felt like I had food sensitivities to anything I tried to ingest. I lost 30 pounds of hard earned muscle due to paranoia of what foods might be causing me to break out from head to toe with painful itchy welts. I was also suffering at the same time with delayed pressure urticaria. I had to forgo any type of athletic endeavor due to swelling produced by pressure on the skin. Needless to say, life sucked.
Due to wheat/oats/barley testing high on igg antibody tests, I decided to remove gluten. This helped somewhat. After seeing nearly every type of specialist and driving all over the country, I still had no answers. Eventually I came across the whole30 website and learned about the paleo way of eating. Removing all grains made a world of difference. The amount of hives reduced by nearly 75% and I was able to strength train again. My palms do not swell up anymore, but everything else still does. I still have to be mindful of the DPU at all times. For example, I can’t squat with a barbell or get a massage, as this will trigger welts on my back.
In February of this year (before adapting a paleo diet, but gluten-free) blood work was as follows:
Total Cholesterol: 115 MG/DL
HDL: 38 MG/DL
LDL: 65 MG/DL (Did not get LDL particle size)
Triglycerides: 62 MG/DL
Hb1AC: 4.8
C-Reactive Protein: 1.0 MG/DL
After following a Paleo diet for 3 months:
Total Cholesterol: 199 MG/DL
HDL: 63 MG/DL
LDL: 123 MG/DL
Triglycerides: 63 MG/DL
Insurance wouldn’t cover Hb1AC again…
C-Reactive Protein: 5.6 MG/L
Is there anything I should be concerned with regarding the latest blood work? The main thing I’m concerned with here is that CRP is still slightly high. (doctor’s say not to worry about it, and that the hives are unexplainable)
How do I know if I have auto-immunity at play? I have been tested for nearly every type of parasite and auto-immune disease and nothing comes up. All auto-immune tests are negative. Docs like to label it idiopathic and send you away with some drugs. I took several types of anti-histamines/other drugs for awhile, but never got any relief and a few of them actually made the condition worse.
Also experiencing some GI issues. I’ve been taking Super Enzymes and Probiotics for about a year on and off, and I can’t tell if they make a difference. Also often have numbing and tingling the of appendages which started around the same time as the hives.
Which brings me to the question. Have you seen anyone send chronic hives or delayed pressure urticaria into remission with a Paleo approach, and if so how long does the process usually take? I’ve done several elimination diets, and the only foods that I have found to make a huge difference when removed are grains and legumes. I seem to be able to tolerate dairy pretty well. However, it is not in my diet at this time, as I am trying to stay strict grain/legume/dairy free. I’m getting 8-10 hours of sleep a night.
Thanks for all you do. Let me know if any other information is needed. I’m doing 100% Paleo, but it feels like I’m stuck. Any suggestions. I’m open to anything…
(if this is the type of question that needs to be addressed on a podcast, please let me know. I submitted it a week ago, and I will wait patiently)
Hi David
I have suffered chronic uticaria twice in my life. Once from about 20-23 and again at 30-31. I found my hives were definitely triggered by temperature. High heat, and snowy cold. I lived in Lake Havasu during the Summer and Mammoth in the winter. When I moved back to the beach I found relief. The second time around I figured out high temperature work outs in the grass were a trigger. I feel your pain, hives suck.
I’m not sure about Paleo and hives, but I suspect there could be some relief. I have tried to link Robb’s site to a Yahoo uticaria group on two occasions and both times the moderators denied my post. Maybe if you share your story they will let people suffering from hives have access to this important information. I have put in a link to the user group, if you haven’t seen it, there is some good discussion going on there.
Good luck David, I hope you can squash the hives.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/urticaria/
Thanks. I have been involved with that group in the past, but unfortunately they almost always delete anything that has to do with natural and healthy ways to address urticaria. I have been at the same place that most of the members there are at, feeling lost and a slave to drugs. I have felt way better mentally and physically, when I was able to get off of the drugs and take charge of my life.
There is a user on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/user/hivesinfo, who follows a paleo approach and her hives are kept under control.
I am in the same boat as her. Paleo seems to help with the chronic urticaria, but not so much with the delayed pressure aspect of it.
I just wish there was a way to put it into remission completely.
Hey David–
I too have had chronic hives. The worst was set off by Celexa at 23, wearing anything that touched my skin caused lots of welts, showers caused hives, temperature changes, touch. Basically, if I just stood still, I was fine. etc. I never had a problem until then and it resolved as soon as I went off. I never took an anti depressants again. However, I think Celexa screwed my system ever since because I got hives later.
At 26 I started breaking out in hives again, usually I’d scratch an itch or lean on something, and I’d get welts, I could gently scratch a letter into my skin and get a welt a little later. Had to keep lower shower temps. Sometimes I’d go into the sun and while my arms were fine, my stomach (not as sun exposed) would welt up. So I got allergy tested and tested positive for lettuce (wt?), parsley, peas and oranges. I think peas are foul, and didn’t eat them anyway, but I was eating lettuce every day. I stopped eating all those foods, they went away.
About 6 months ago I started breaking out again, correlating with changing my cat litter to pine, week long pizza binge and new detergent. I changed the litter and the detergent, no luck. Then I eliminated wheat, they went away after 2 days. A week later I had some beer and a pizza, hey they’re back. Tried that a few times, yep, wheat, actually maybe gluten, because I had some chocolate and broke out, only to go back and look at the chocolate, hey, it has barely (what!?).
My friend told me about paleo podcasts and I’ve been listening ever since. He’s gotten into better shape because of it.
After having been off wheat for a while, for Thanksgiving there was a lot of good home made wheaty things. So I ate them. I did not break out into hives immediately, but I did have GI distress. It took about 2 days for the hives to show up, but the GI distress was fairly immediate. I then about 2 days later ate more wheat based foods, gi distress is less but hives are back. :/ So, time to accept that I really can’t eat wheat anymore.
One other thought, the urticaria may be related to asthma. I also have exercise induced asthma (which is great because then it is super easy to get my pulse up . . . but not great for the same reason). This article suggests there may be some relationship between idiopathic hives and asthma: http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACAAI/23479?utm_source=WC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Meeting_Roundup_ACAAI
I remember Robb said something at the VERY BEGINNING about high salt being related to exercise induced asthma.
The numbing and the tingling could be a sign of something else, maybe a B deficiency, or peripheral neuropathy, but could be a signal of something else. Some anti-histamines and other drugs have anti-cholinergic side effects so the tingling might be related to that? Some people are more sensitive to anticholinergics than others.
Oh, yet another thought on hives, there is also an autoimmune called mastocytosis, basically leaky mast cells, that can also cause hive response. But maybe you’ve already been tested for that.
Anyway, I’m more or less convinced that paleo is the way to go and I’m in the process of switching over more and more of my diet. I still do dairy, but heavy cream, kerry gold butter, and soft cheeses only. I also sometimes do rice and corn– but am reducing it more and more over time. And I need to start exercising.
—
Robb! Andy! & Keystone! (And the wives) Thanks for all the work you do (and put up with! 🙂 ) ! I’m more like a slow ramp up type than a switch all at once type . . . but even with minor changes I’ve made, I’ve seen a big improvement in weight loss (14-17 lbs) and body composition (with the scale reader from 31% to 27% under same conditions except weight, so I know not precisely accurate, but consistently inaccurate (and yes, high for 5’8 and 135) I really enjoy your podcasts and I listen to them on the way home from work, which is a great way to unwind. I really appreciate the lack of sexism in your presentations.
Lex-
Amazing and very kind comment, thank you!
Thanks Lex!
I too have asthma since I was young. Not sure how that all plays into this, but I have heard a lot about Xolair being used effectively in treating chronic hives. That may have to be something I look into again in several months if I’m still not making progress.
I was checked for mastocytosis by my rheumatologist, who said it was very unlikely that I had this based on my bloodwork.
The numbing/tingling is still a mystery to me. I’m not taking any anti-histamines and haven’t for some time, so that shouldn’t be a factor.
Paleo has given me about a 80% improvement, but I feel like I’m stuck there.
I am about to remove eggs/nuts and seeds/nightshades from the diet and see if this does anything for me.
DAVID! I know your comment is old, but I FEEL YOUR PAIN and felt called to reply anyways.
I have had 3 episodes of “chronic idiopathic hives” in my life- the first when I was a pre-teen (11-13), then again for a short while from 14-15. We tried EVERYTHING. I had a nutritionist, allergist, rheumatologist, and had done many consultations with other “-ists”! We were doing: mega dosing of Benadryl (100 mg every 4-5 hours), doxepin 25 mg at bedtime (H1 & H2 block), and probiotics– this combo seemed to have them “calm” enough so that I could function, but prednisone was the only thing that really quelled then, but it was horrific on my moods and the long-term side effects were god-awful. I had a terrible quality of life- I was always itchy/burning/and rocking sweaters/pants in the hot Florida sun. At one point, they were suggesting the use of a medication used to treat malaria (cannot recall the name) and Prograf (or some variant of it). My mother, bless her open-minded heart, was NOT willing to place me on any of these and looked into acupuncture. We found a woman who specializes in NAET (a variation of acupuncture/acupressure) and within 4 months of weekly sessions I WAS A HUMAN AGAIN and life was awesome.
Fast-forward to the college years and a diet of carbs, BEER, and sweet treats, and still NO issues (I am genetically blessed to have a slight frame, so I didn’t carry this as extra weight at all. However, if I had, vanity may have gotten the best of me and I would have likely cleaned up my diet sooner, but oh well…).
Those sneaky jerks did not pop up again until I was 26 (currently). It was actually last January that they started. I had recently begun a very high stress job as a nurse practitioner and was craving sugar like crazy (example: CANDY CANES FOR LUNCH). One evening I began to feel hot from the inside out and saw my familiar enemies begin to creep up along my elbows- I knew exactly what was going on and I was crushed. This time, the hives were worse. They were meaner, itchier, and included angioedema and delayed pressure urticarial (the latter two being totally new symptoms for me). My hives and angioedema looked a lot like this woman’s: http://whole30.com/2013/10/whole30-success-story-hives/
I eventually found a woman who does NAET here, and within 3-4 months of seeing her weekly, I was in hive-remission. I had cleaned up my diet SOME (cut out most gluten and excessive sugar), but was still lax on alcohol and would “cheat” quite frequently (only cheating myself). In October, I got very sick with a stomach virus and the hives re-emerged a week after. I immediately got in to see my NAET specialist and started following the AIP/paleo protocol. Those little jerks only hung around for 4 days this time and (fingers-crossed) have not yet returned. I now must dedicate myself to making a FULL diet change.
Point of this long-winded response is to look into NAET. Coming from a medical profession myself, I would think it was total nonsense unless I had lived though the hives and the many failed conventional treatments and then saw the success with the NAET. If you google it, it has very little support from a conventional western medicine standpoint. I do not believe that any of my remissions were spontaneous and I do believe that they were strongly aided by this non-invasive/side effect-free treatment. Now it is MY responsibility to continue to eat how my body needs me to- the really troubling thought I have with the hives is: If this is how my body reacts on the outside, what is it doing to the inside of me?
This is how I felt coming across your comment: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wisdom_of_the_ancients.png
Good luck to you and since this is old I hope you are hive-free, get this comment and think “good lord I posted that ages ago!”
DAVID! I know your post is old but please confirm that your units are correct “The main thing I’m concerned with here is that CRP is still slightly high. (doctor’s say not to worry about it…”
Your initial CRP was 1.0mg/dL and the secondary was 5.6mg/L (which equals 0.56mg/dL) if your units as posted are correct, your second measurement of CRP is lower even though both look fairly acceptable to me. I made the same error when my results came in <5mg/L and I thought that the results were useless, but if that means <0.5mg/dL I don't really need an exact number, it is low enough for my purposes. It would be nice if I had an objective metric I could use to determine which foods cause inflammation and how much. Back to the bristol stool chart for now.
Thanks for commenting on my question about Cynthia Kenyon’s work! But my main question, that I submitted earlier through the ‘question for the podcast’-button, was about saving my gallbladder. I have a gallstone of 1,3 cm and I have put my doctor’s plans to remove the bladder on hold and discussed using bile-salt to dissolve the stone. But, since I have gluten+lactose intollerance and just recently taken it out of my diet, I am worried that it might cause new irritation of the intestines. Any ideas how to manage it? Or is there a chance that through changing the diet, the stone might shrink without extra bile salt? I have no idea if stopping the mechanism that caused them, will effect a reversing, or just a stand off at the status quo. I am collecting as much info as I can before starting treatments. Thanks for the podcasts, a joy to listen to. Thanks, Cat
Cat-
Yes, it;s possible. The formation is thought to be caused by a disruption in CCK signaling. Just work with your doc and monitor closely. It’d be very interesting to see how the ultra sound looks in a month or so.
Thanks! Will keep you up to date. I decided to go really low carb and leave out pumpkins, sweet potato and chocolate for the next months. I hope this will speed up this process.
Cat,
In 2004 I almost lost my gallbladder [and part of my pancreas, AKA a partial Whipple]. I had stones, polyps, duct blockage, inflammation, infection and “unidentified masses” . My GI assured me that my gall bladder was not a vital organ – it’s no big deal, he said, snip snip and the pain will be gone!!
I was 48hrs from laparoscopic surgery and got a 2nd opinion from one of the ninjas at Johns Hopkins. His advice was DON’T RUSH INTO SURGERY -wait, and see – do every thing possible to resolve this non-surgically. With small stones, these things sometimes resolve themselves, or at least the symptoms become less severe. Various meds, bile salts, taurine, CDCA, UDCA, herbal flushes, etc etc. It was a tough couple of years. Eventually the primary cause was identified as AIP [autoimmune pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition]. The condition is under control/resolved with prednisone and other immunosuppressants. No symptoms for 3+ yrs.
I went Paleo in May 2010 and now ~70% of my calories are from fat [up from ~10% the previous 8 yrs]. A high fat Paleo diet sans gallbladder has got to be tricky.
I still have lots of other autoimmune stuff going on, but I’ve had great results so far from going Paleo -wish I’d known about it 10 yrs ago – could have avoided a lot of misery.
BTW, I’ve never heard of a gallbladder connection with pumpkin & yams – curious why you’re cutting those out.
Good luck.
Man, what a journey! I am at the beginning, I guess.
Had an interesting meeting with a surgeon today, to discuss the risks of not operating yet, while I look for other ways to get rid of it. Well, interesting conversation it was, let’s not get into that. Just decided to find a gallbladder friendly doctor and go for a second opinion, and also ask for looking into a pancreas-connection.
So, about the chocolate and starchy paleo foods: chocolate is my pizza (ep. 54) and because all caffeine stuff give me heart palpitations, I figure it does something to my cortisol levels. Very sad but has to go (for a while). And I also want to try to give my insuline-production-process a rest and see if that steadies my energy supply, so will skip the starchy things. Looking for a feeling of balance, I guess. And I have no symptoms when eating paleo, but do feel pressure under my right rib after eating starchy&choc.
So, YEY for paleo, and the search for relieve from troublesome gallbladders (with regular echo’s and doctor visits so keep an eye on the risks, until they are gone)!
Good luck to you too! Are you already skipping the nightshades/nuts/eggs, due to their autoimmune connection?
Cat
Hey Robb / anybody who is reading this !
I have a question related to inflammatory bowel diseases or any kind of auto-immune diseas.
I have crohn’s disease since 2007. I was never in remission without steroid. Until I started paleo. I had my crp level at 30 last October with the same medication as now (10 mg methorexate / week , 100 mg imuran, some xalazin / day) [My crp level dropped below 1 in 3 months and it’s still there]
I’m doing paleo since November of 2009 I started it with pretty high carb, lots of fruit even some cheese, lots of nuts,then I slowly reached ‘whole30’ kind of very strict paleo during this one year.
I feel great, I exercise as never in my life (23 years old by the way).RKC workout twice a week, sprinting with my dog on week ends , hiking etc..
My problem is I’m still on medication, I want to stop that. Somehow I would like to convince my gastroenterologist that this stuff works. I would like to ask you to give some related ‘scienc-y enough’ links that I could give him etc.
And I would like to ask also for anecdotal evidence, people with IBD / auto-immune with medication on paleo then without medication, how is going? please comment!
Thanks in advance,
a fan from central Europe 🙂
gg-
I’d ask your doc to “support you in this.” Look through the posts on IBS and crohns for anecdotal info. Google any of these conditions and “gluten” for some science.
gg,
I’ve recently had a client who has IBS, Iritis and back & joint pain linked with the HLAB27 gene go into complete remission – no gut issues, no pain. She is stunned!
She is paleo, including dairy free and starch free as per Carol Sinclair, The IBS low starch diet.
http://www.lowstarchdiet.net/author.html
Not the same condition as you, but thought I’d share the result anyway in case it helps. This particular client is extremely starch and gluten sensitive, even the filler in her multivite contributed to inflammation.
Julianne –
sounds like your client has ankylosing spondylitis or some other spondyloarthropathy. Is she off all meds since going Paleo/low starch?
You should encourage her to participate in Prof Cordain’s autoimmune study.
Yes – She thinks it probably has AS too – that was my immediate thought, and I asked her if she had been tested. She has family members with it, although has not been tested herself. Which is why I suggested she try this version of paleo. She was on NSAIDS but not other meds, but the discomfort still severely restricted her exercise. She doesn’t need anti-inflammatories or pain killers at all now, and can run again without pain.
She is still testing out different foods and tolerances, and is doing the 30 day dairy free paleo challenge at the gym, – and she’ll do a detailed write-up when she has completed it.
I’ll talk to her about doing the auto-immune study too.
She has lost a lot of fat as well over the last 3 months.
Wow – that’s awesome. Hope she participates in the study – it would be great to document durable remission of AS thru diet alone. Iritis can be especially tricky – sudden flare-ups out of nowhere.
I’ve had such good results with Paleo – I want to see if there is more I can do via diet, with the hope of reducing my reliance on all the immunosuppressants I take. I’d love to tinker with the low-starch / Ebringer AS diet, but I’m getting conflicting advice as to what I need to cut out. My diet is already so restricted – just grassfed & wild caught, + veggies and modest fruit, no nightshades. Obviously, I don’t consume much starch – but I do have a couple bananas each week and I don’t limit my veggie intake. I try to eat seasonally, so as we head into winter I’m eating more squash, zucchini, swedes, pumpkin, carrots, onions, plus garlic, tumeric, cumin. I’m told these are all “starchy”.
I’m having trouble figuring out what general level of starch constitutes strict adherence to the low starch / Ebringer AS diet. I’ve been searching the web for a good list of starch content by food, but I can’t find anything. It’s ridiculous – I can calculate down to the gram my daily intake of carb, fiber, fat & protein, but I honestly have no idea how much starch I’m getting.
Any info re: what your client is eating would be great.
Thanks
Hey Robb/Andy,
Glad I could drive you to an F-bomb on the “Twinkie Guy” subject 🙂 Thats how I feel fielding questions from folks on this. I’ll make sure next time I post a question I make it more legible — didn’t expect it to make it to the Podcast.
I guess I never expected the Cal-deficit to have that much of a swing short term on the under-the-hood blood numbers. That seems to be the piece I didn’t grasp and where a lot of the good commentary on this is focusing (short term, almost anything works with some calorie deficit — long term, what is sustainable…).
Thanks guys!
Matt @ Centerville Crossfit
Robb
Three question.
1. What supplements are YOU currently taking?
2. What supplements would you add to your diet if all your meat was grain fed.
3. Are twinkies Paleo?
Thanks brother!
p.s. the new website is pretty rad, but going to be honest and say I’m a little bummed with no forum 🙁
regarding #2…basically looking at CLA, K2 etc..Not more fish oil.
Robb – not sure if you saw this article in the NYT today: Epilepsy’s Big Fat Miracle http://nyti.ms/b0J6rV
Yep! That is a great one!
beat me to it!
Gents,
Only listening to the podcast now, as I’ve been away. I did hear about the Twinkie Debate during my travels, however.
Reference Professor Twinkie: Is is fair to boil his hypocaloric Twinkie diet study to-
“Consuming less poison is better for you than consuming more poison”?
While I’m on a roll, the unknown and unknowable/Utrinque Paratus issue:
If no summation of leg extensions, leg press, hamstring curls and calf raises will equal a squat, can we posit that 60 kipping pullups doesn’t equal being able to climb a cliff?
Uh, yea. This is what Erwan has seen in some ELITE crossfit folks. Great capacity, and a complete inability to climb real-world objects.
At soem point you have to work technique and expand skill-set. Not just sweat.
Coincidentally I listened to this podcast while in the car on my way to pick up a quarter share of pastured pork that has been living in the apple orchard for the past few months. I can’t wait to taste it! I love my grass-fed beef, but I might love pork even more.
Quick request – can you post some links to the post you referenced refuting the Twinkie diet? I checked the show notes, but that seems to just bee the questions.
Hi Robb and Andy,
Thanks for all of the good work that you do. Love the book.
I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and we have traditional dietary restrictions that require us to eat an exclusively vegan diet for almost half of the year (in total).
My question is if I need to bend the paleo rules during these periods, what do you think the best options would be?
Rice rather than wheat? Soy rather than other legumes? Lentils rather than chick peas? Or the other way around? Veggies and nuts only?
I wish i could just only eat salad and be happy during these times, but I am starving all day if I only eat vegetables.
So i wonder what you think the least harmful options might be for a hungry semi-vegan greek boy.
Thanks,
David
Hi Robb
Anthony Colpo consistently misuses ad hominem. He does not udnerstand how to properly apply, nor what it even means.
Have a look at my blog, which has reputable information on obesity from Dr. Jeffrey Friedman.
Colpo is no expert. Don;t mind him.
Take care,
Razwell
Will do, thank you.