Time to be a Carnivore
The answer I suppose is the way I feel, I wouldn't call myself depressed but I am tired all the time and I get moments of feeling like the entire world is against me. I use to put the paranoia on cannabis but since I quit this some months ago I haven't really seen much of a change. It's reduced, don't get me wrong, and it's certainly become easier to deal with but it still nags at the back of my brain. I spare way too much of my mental capacity trying to work out what is or isn't a paranoid thought which makes it hard to truly relax around people.
Aside from the mental issues I get annoyed by some physical symptoms as well. These are nothing debilitating. The main one has been my tinnitus, which most will say it's from my years of playing the drums and going to gigs. Truth is, I don't really think so due to the timing of getting it. It's also gotten worse and I don't play the drums or go to gig's anymore as loud music just makes me feel uncomfortable. I also get seriously bad acne on my back, chest and sometimes it even crawls up my neck. Aside from being sometimes painful, it's more just a hit to the ego than anything. Anyone who's suffered from this probably knows how self-conscious it can make you feel. Additionally, there's the very British bunged up nose and flemmy chest that I can't really remember much of a time without, even during our summers. I'm starting to wonder as my life goes on are these little issues things I have to put up with or is there a better way?
Well... I've been googling, reading books on health as well as taking a look at studies on just these issues. Many years now in fact and I've built up some idea's, theories and even found some anecdotal evidence that has solidified some of those theories. I lack a lot in proving this in any substantiated way, and I have seen so many snake oil salesmen with their quick cures for all ailments I don't want to sound like yet another myself.
So I decided to take another approach. One of self-experimentation, one can't really know if something works until they try it on themselves. Even if those results are subjective, some of these ramblings may help someone else somewhere find their own path to decent health. So my journey I suppose begins.
I think my issues are down to diet mainly so that's where I shall begin. Heck, I can eat an ungodly amount of sugar in a sitting and generally have a hunger that can't be quenched. I've been experimenting with a low/zero carb diet for the past few years now, and I've noticed some reduction in those aforementioned problems. I even managed, for one night, to have a completely silent sleep which was bliss let me tell you. My tinnitus had completely disappeared until the morning when I awoke to discover the ringing had returned. strangely enough, right after stopping the "amazing" 4 days I'd managed on Low Carb.
My plan then is pretty much to be a carnivore and eat only meat and water for the next 30 days. I started this morning, and my plan after completing this 30 days is to slowly reintroduce vegetables to test my bodies reaction to them. I have no idea what will happen and I will try to keep this blog updated with the progress.
In the standings of scientific knowledge, I thought it best to begin with a blood test. I took one last week whilst still on the "see food and eat it" diet and have included my results at the bottom of this post. I will take another test to compare my results at the end of these 30 days to see where I'm at.
If I die, then tell my wife "Hello".
My Results:
B12 - 531.0 pmol/L
Folate - 6.68 nmol/L
HbA1c - 31.65 nmol/mol
Lipid Profile: LDL Cholesterol - 2.74 mmol/L
non HDL Cholesterol - 3.11 mmol/L
Triglycerides - 0.81 mmol/L
HDL Cholesterol - 1.16 mmol/L
Cholesterol Ratio - 27.17%
Cholesterol - 4.27 mmol/L
Cholesterol Ratio - 3.68 ratio
Liver Function: Gamma GT - 21.0 IU/L
Alkaline Phosphatase - 92.0 IU/L
Albumin - 44.6 g/L
Globulin - 26.9 g/L
Alanine Transferase - 25.1 IU/L
Bilirubin - 9.4 umol/L
Total Protein - 71.5 g/L