Michael569

if your BP is already low, fish oil can reduce it even further, this is why they (including fish) are so useful for cardiovascular health, because of their anticoagulant effect combined with hypotensive effects which is why they are not generally recommended for cardiac patients who are on meds already. Hawthorn, allicin, aspirin, ginkgo, gotu kola and bunch of other nutraceuticals can do that to you as well So the dizziness might be an effect of hypotension. But it might be down to something else too, hypoglycemia maybe too if you generally eat low carb diet, maybe there is an effect on blood glucose as well. Might be a combination of multiple factors

What is your average daily blood pressure?

@Something Funny still not onboard but I gotta admit some of those hiking shoes actually look pretty solid Perhaps one day....

I think it is a combination of both but it is probably bottom-up rather than top-down. You can have the most generous LP on the planet but if nobody cares about it, your basic survival will be harder to cover. Unless, of course there is a system in place that helps you to just work on your LP and ignore the monetary part such as having a wealthy family, large savings or trading your work for a basic living (e.g. exchanging work for food & shelter in a sort of a monk fashion) I also agree with your hypothesis that you should first have the lower levels in place before embarking on this as holes in the pyramid will make the whole thing collapse. Things that should be put in place before a pursuit of purpose are: finances (having some form of stable income even if lower), relationships (or at least sexual fulfilment), living situation & non-toxic environment, habits (work ethic, exercise habits, mindfulness habits, routines), relative emotional mastery, mindset (being prepared to spend a lot of money on all sorts of things LP & business related), some education, some world experience (such as travel) , lot of prior reading and research, becoming realistic optimist rather than a naive optimist. You will often hear cliche things such as "you just have to follow your heart and al the pieces will fall in place" but I think that's just bs and unless you are extremely strategic and ruthless with your time & effort, it will eventually fail and force one to go back to wage slavery. I used to be extremely optimistic but now having been in the middle of it for the last 3 years all my romantic notions have kinda died out and I've become extremely practical and realistic with this - unless one is willing to put the work, time and money in, it won't happen. And you may still be doing the right things, working 12-hour days, making videos, reels, posts, paying other experts - and it still won't happen....at least that's how I see it right now. But my strategy is far from ideal, there are many things I should be doing and am not because of my own limiting beliefs. And a lot of what I do bears no fruit and needs to be changed. Ina way, feels like learning how to survive after being thrown out of a chopper in the middle of a forest. You're kinda going at it and hope you're doing the right things before time runs out (or in this case before your savings run dry if you dont have a secondary income)

not on the ones I've seen people wear - that stuff would be cut through by a blunt rock. I'm sure there are betetr quality ones with thicker sole which then kinda defeats the purpose of "bare foot shoe" you can do that perfectly well with regular shoes - this one is more about mental mindfulness than suddenly getting some magical effect from the shoes. You can walk in ski boots and be perfectly mindful. You might be right, I would bet most types of those injuries come down to matching wrong shoes to the wrong weather or doing stupid shit. When it comes to accidental tripping, I think you would be fine as long as the shoes you wear are sturdy enough Most walking I do (outside of the gym and commute) is out in forests, on coasts and basically outdoor. I can't imagine doing 25km outdoor hike 3 days in a row in barefoot shoes. Nothing beats good quality sturdy shoes with reinforced sole and additional protection for your calves. If most of your walking is around carpets or flat roads of town centre, that's probably okay. And finally, there is a reason we wear socks because they help prevent deposit of sweat, bacteria and dead skin inside the shoes. Not sure how protected you are from that in barefoot shoes. You can tell I'm biased I've just done too many gimmicks over my lifetime most of which were nothing but a wasted money so I got to a point where I'm extremely sceptical about every new hype such as this.

All it takes is a random shard of glass or an upward-pointing rusty nail to answer the question. (although standard shoes are unlikely to protect from the later either) I definitely wouldn't use them when going out of your usual environment where you can actually injure your feet with sharp objects or run at a higher risk of ankle dislocations. I heard they are great for squatting tho so if you're a heavy lifter they may help. Overall they are unlikely to stand up to the hype

Yeah it can turn to that if you allow it, that's a fair criticism. The way I see this book is that it is a set of different tools and things to keep at the back of your mind, as you go through the day, to do, if you can. I don't think doing the whole thing 100% is too practical, I agree with you on that. It should be a pick & choose a method, like a buffer of choices. Over time you'll see which work and which don't. But it is the small things people can apply (many of which they would have never heard about before) But just as with any health book, you can take it too far and turn it into a dogma or a bible...that's for sure.

I found Sachin Panda's - Circadian Code book helpful on that front.

Have you tried listening to a story? Maybe a book on Audible. For example, if you are a Harry Potter fan, listening to this in the evening can be pretty chilled, the Audible versions are narrated by Steven Fry, one of the best audio books. CALM, the app also has lots of night time stories that help take your mind away and help you relax. Do you think it is a stress issue? Do you feel a lot of unresolved tension in the body? I assume you're doing all the obvious things: eliminating light sources, dark curtains, sleeping mask, staying away from caffeine past 2 pm. Some hot brew of chamomile before bedtime can help. Alternatively the last hour walk around your house with something like this on your earbuds. This stuff works really well for me

can you tell more about this: What are the factors that influence endothelial integrity? Is that genetically given? Is it because of the sheer stress of the ejection from the left ventricle or more like wear & tear over time? How (and why) do elastin fibres in certain areas become weaker? Does it have anything to do with diet, antioxidant status, and collagen repair? What are things we know that weaken these fibres? Is this where particle size comes in? What about systemic effects of things like histamine on endothelial permeability?

Ofcourse it is incomplete. Even Alan at one point admits "I don't know where heart disease starts" and he says "I think it is in the proximal Aorta" So in a way, even the specialists on cardiology don't fully understand the disease. Being able to admit the limitations of one's knowledge is a very humble trait, this is why I loved this conversation, because they are both humble enough to admit that. Basically, anyone in health who tells you they know it all are so full of shit that even their burps smell like farts. That's fine, our knowledge is evolving and new studies are coming out each month. I really like when Alan criticises the types of studies coming out right now - mechanistic trash focusing completely on the wrong stuff, on rodents, with cool pathways so that they get published and shared on social rather than something that would actually advance the field. The tools we have right now are the tools we need. Not everything that is new is necessarily better. Diagnostic tools are pretty good, they are standardised and can usually predict a disease fairly efficiently. Of course with the application of genetic medicine and nano tech, the field is likely to advance even further as long as they are applied properly. I'm all for continuous advancement but not at the expense of practicality (e.g. lot of companies nowadays sell tests and assessments which are just fucking garbage, inaccurate, irrelevant and completely misleading the patient down numerous dead ends. Not just that but I am sometimes getting clients who worked with naturopaths and functional med practitioners who send them for overpriced shitty tests like Organic Acids, complex methylation panels, all sorts of weird guts tests, hair analysis tests - because they have no idea what to do with those people so they keep coming up with ways to avoid admitting that. Of course in the end the client is 5 grant shorter and not an inch closer to getting better and on the top of that the reputation of the industry is slowly sinking. So yah, new isnt always better. We need to balance the new with the proven-to-work

you might find this debate interesting if you want to geek out and go really deep on the topic. They cover everything from Cholesterol to APoB to statins and PCSK9 inhibitors as well as challenge the model of 10-year risk vs 30-year risk based on Alan's 2020 review I thought this was a very mature and comprehensive discussion.

more votes needed boys and girls !!

That sort of garbage (on the picture) is what happens when they don't read the guidelines. The guidelines do not encourage junk food and processed food (unless the person is in a situation where not eating junkfood would mean becoming malnourished) in which case, some junk food would even be beneficial as sad as it sounds. Other situation where junk food is beneficial is chemotreatment-induced cachexia where the patient is at the risk of malnourishment and premature death and eating more hypercaloric food keep them alive until they are ready to start eating normal food again and until they are stable again. Everyone else is going to be doing better without it

@thenondualtankie might be worth talking to urologist. If it is indeed covid-related, they would have seen other patients with similar issues and might be able to advise on what to do

people have hard time trusting the authorities who have, in many cases where possible done that already and summarised those findings. Every government in developed countries has and published guidelines. Such as this one done by US https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/ or this done by the UK government https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-eatwell-guide or Germany https://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-dietary-guidelines/regions/countries/germany/en/ Notice they all come to similar conclusions when it comes to answering "what the heck should humans eat" But the problem with these is that they are boring, dull, not cool enough, not extreme enough. E.g. we think we "already know all that". One cannot create identify out of eating a Mediterranean Diet the way one can become a Carnivore or Vegan or Paleo freak. All of this nonsense is a human ego problem We prefer flashy, cool articles created by quacks that tell us "EVERYTHING YOU KNEW ABOUT FOOD IS WRONG !!!" because we prefer to believe in what "sounds convincing" rather than what is probably true. We like cool pseudoscientific pathways , exotic words and ripped influencers over listening to a group of old white men who have studied this for 50 years. But yah, this is a problem and I don't see it going anywhere anytime , sadly and it is costing us billions in healthcare and thousands of years of lost human years of lifespan.

Might or might not - the effects of creatine on mental health are poorly researched. But you won't know until you try. 2-3 weeks should indeed be enough to reach peak muscle saturation. Be prepared for some additional weight gain as a result of minor water retention. This is usually 1-3 kilos over the supplementation period are you taking any medication? Some may interact with Omega 3s but in most cases you're fine. You might want to have that investigated if it doesn't get better. I've never heard of penile sensitivities after covid before. Could there be a degree of psychosomatic response of some sort? Is masturbation uncomfortable? Do you experience that all over or more towards the glans? Not sure if B12 will do much but you can never go wrong with it, if you are avoiding animal produce. Most vitamins you can take together, in a single dose, in the morning. Some minerals like zinc are better received before sleep by some people but overall, it doesn't really matter. D, E & K should be taken with some food but I don't honestly know if that makes a difference, somehow I think that "fat absorbtion" is not really a thing and they just get mixed with fat once crossing the lumen of your digestive tract anyway. hope that helps

yes and no. YES - in a sense if you remain a dogmatic sheep , close-minded to alternative opinions because "the study says so" especially in topics where the evidence quality & quantity is generally low and deficient NO - if you have an overall direction of the evidence accumulated over decades (for example things like saturated fats and heart disease, saffron and depression, weight loss and diabetes) where you have different trials and studies and meta-analyses all pointing roughly similar way over the years) - in such case, you can almost be sure that sticking to what those studies say is likely to be a better choice than the alternative. It is never 100% and there are always outliers to who the opposite seems to be valid. But overall, when the evidence quality is high and abundant, you are most likely to benefit by following that line of direction....at least where health is concerned. One shouldn't read research as one would read a bible - it is yet another tool in your arsenal when you are a clinician or a practitioner or simply a health seeker. It is certainly not the only one.

I am not an expert in statistical methods by any stretch and would not presume any expertise here, however I believe the JAMA review has been coming under a lot of scrutiny and criticism the way they presented their data and for sorta under-evaluating the ARR and and that mean trial durations were relatively low, this is a common issue in CVD prevention trials, if the study is too short, too few people experience the event and your risk ratio is skewed (as dark as that sounds) ARR in general is a relatively low number because you are taking the risk reduction ratio of two different groups and dividing the risk so even very small ARR are very much clinically meaningful. So even if the prevalence is very high (e.g. a lot of people in your cohorts are sick) ARR may remain low - @undeatheris that so or am I talking out of my ass here? This was a good debate that went deep into this one for anyone interested in geeking out

I used to have this during my times on a vegan diet as well, yah. It is probably connected to deeper belief systems rather than any form of biological inheritance or anything to do with ancestral diets. If you subconsciously believe that animal products are bad for you, I wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly start becoming gross to look at. Probably one of millions of adaptations we go through all the time.

Sounds like it's either a deficiency issue or an insufficient replacement issue. If you replace the nutrient density of that steak with a bowl or rice you'll probably feel like shit, whereas replacing it with equally caloric and nutrient-dense food, you'd probably be fine.

While this conversation is none of my business, I can attest that I've consulted a few very difficult client cases with @undeather through PMs over the last 2 years, and his advice has helped me prepare better plans, request better tests and generally help a few complex clients on a better scale. Take that testimonial for whatever it's worth; personally, I'm grateful to have someone like that around here, considering he is sharing high-quality advice for free and considering a lot of health information being exchanged around here is going beyond common quackery. There wasn't any external agenda included, he never asked any money, nor to send him patients nor for a review or anything like that in exchange and he doesn't even have a website in his signature so not sure what the ultimate goal would be. I think we have to recognise the limitations of our knowledge and be humble enough when presented with the opportunity of further learning or with the opportunity to correct our worldview. Especially where public health is concerned.

@undeather what is the prevalence of gut issues when it comes to B12 malabsorption, e.g. pernicious anaemia. Is that fairly common in your experience? If not what would you say is the most common cause of b12 deficiency where supplementation is optimised for?

yeah, cross-supplementation of those shouldn't impact absorption. Yellow urine from B vitamins is normal and benign. Not sure about creatine absorption, but I probably wouldn't worry about it. That B12 is something you need to focus on with priority. First of all just get it retested in some time and see what the trend is. In addition, figure out if you can find the MMA test, If the B12 keeps coming low even after supplementation, it may be an absorption issue at which case they need to dig deeper and run maybe the following panel to if there isn't an issue at the level of the stomach lining or proximal intestine. Your doctor can run numerous tests such as the below to test for those: intrinsic factor antibodies test parietal cell antibodies test gastrin test In addition, I would potentially even consider Coeliac testing if nothing else comes up.