Health Problems

sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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Gurgeh said:
Normal vit D level is around 70, as per studies on savage tribes. 40 is decent but most certainly suboptimal. A lot of studies show benefits above 40. When you think about it, 15 minutes of sun cannot be optimal considering how much time our ancestors spent outside. 15 minutes is enough so that you don't end up in ICU when you catch covid or the flu, but that's it.
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I haven't gone too deep into the tribal studies, but I don't know if they can be directly extrapolated to modern humans (at least without a lot of caution) given that there seems to be (a) very wide racial/regional variation in Vitamin D plasma concentration, (b) people generally didn't live as long then, so they didn't have the chance to start exhibiting any potential effects from overexposure, and (c) we would need to weigh the benefits of more sun exposure against the increased risk of melanoma. In an East Asian/Han population, high vitamin D seems to correlate with heightened esophageal cancer risk, in blacks, with CAD. It reminds me a bit of how we usually recommend two different types of meds for blood pressure in blacks vs whites (generally a diuretic as the first line in blacks; ACE/ARB as the first line in whites).

Really cool how even simple things like nutrition can vary so widely between races.
 
Goatface

Goatface

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i do need more sun. 1st couple of weeks in jan was taking a d3 pill, then had the tests run and stopped taking it when i got the d2 pills. now know why pcp had not called, got another more test results today, Alkaline phosphatases -Placental, -Intestinal %, -Bone %, -Liver %, -Macrohepatic Isoenzyme are all normal. what ever that means :) .
thanks for the advice. know my diet is probably lacking and need to get stuff figured out.
 
Gurgeh

Gurgeh

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sleevedraw said:
I haven't gone too deep into the tribal studies, but I don't know if they can be directly extrapolated to modern humans (at least without a lot of caution) given that there seems to be (a) very wide racial/regional variation in Vitamin D plasma concentration, (b) people generally didn't live as long then, so they didn't have the chance to start exhibiting any potential effects from overexposure, and (c) we would need to weigh the benefits of more sun exposure against the increased risk of melanoma. In an East Asian/Han population, high vitamin D seems to correlate with heightened esophageal cancer risk, in blacks, with CAD. It reminds me a bit of how we usually recommend two different types of meds for blood pressure in blacks vs whites (generally a diuretic as the first line in blacks; ACE/ARB as the first line in whites).

Really cool how even simple things like nutrition can vary so widely between races.
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(a) If you're black and live in Europe your vit D level won't be great. We'd need to travel back in time and see what the level was 5000 years ago among european tribes to know what the intended level is.

(b) As the exhibit below show, the less time you spend in your life outside, the more melanoma, even among 80+

(c) I'd suspect a case of correlation, not causation. High vitD level among Chinese is correlated to being poor, and therefore be massively exposed to pollution in the last 40 years.

Countless if studies show benefits at least up to 40 somtimes up to 100.

skin-cancer-rates.png
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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I really encourage some of you guys to listen to this guy. Its a couple hours long, but you can skip around. I started paying attention to what I eat, vitamins, etc. in the last 6 months and I do not feel like the same person I was this time last year. Using his company or doing that test is completely up to you, but a lot of the problems Ive read on here could have been prevented and this guy proves it.
 
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Foler

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Sluggishness, bad memory (worse than usual), difficulty concentrating (worse than usual), anhedonia, low libido.. mid 30s. Used to have so much more energy and drive 10 years ago.

Cardio and GI seem to be in working order from recent specialist visits. History of thyroid nodules about 8 years ago. Not a problem at the time.

Recently started back at the gym and eating right. Seems to give a little boost. Seeing a new PCP in a week. Concerned he will write off as depression and throw ssri at me. Did pull up my blood work from November to compare it to older blood work. Since 2017 it seems testosterone level went down by 100 but still remains in range.

Any advice on what to ask doctor?
 
Gurgeh

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Foler said:
Sluggishness, bad memory (worse than usual), difficulty concentrating (worse than usual), anhedonia, low libido.. mid 30s. Used to have so much more energy and drive 10 years ago.

Cardio and GI seem to be in working order from recent specialist visits. History of thyroid nodules about 8 years ago. Not a problem at the time.

Recently started back at the gym and eating right. Seems to give a little boost. Seeing a new PCP in a week. Concerned he will write off as depression and throw ssri at me. Did pull up my blood work from November to compare it to older blood work. Since 2017 it seems testosterone level went down by 100 but still remains in range.

Any advice on what to ask doctor?
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You probably won't get result overnight.. going to the gym, eating better and generaly speaking trying to spend as little time sitting as possible should do the trick. Find whatever metric you like and try to do more every month.

Kinda suck when the 'I'm young cheat code' runs out, but with some discipline you'll get most of that energy back.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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Foler said:
Sluggishness, bad memory (worse than usual), difficulty concentrating (worse than usual), anhedonia, low libido.. mid 30s. Used to have so much more energy and drive 10 years ago.

Cardio and GI seem to be in working order from recent specialist visits. History of thyroid nodules about 8 years ago. Not a problem at the time.

Recently started back at the gym and eating right. Seems to give a little boost. Seeing a new PCP in a week. Concerned he will write off as depression and throw ssri at me. Did pull up my blood work from November to compare it to older blood work. Since 2017 it seems testosterone level went down by 100 but still remains in range.

Any advice on what to ask doctor?
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Watch the video I linked just above your post, man. Its spot on and may be the muse to what you should ask your doctor - not that they know how to do more than treat the symptoms of a bunch of shit.
 
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Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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Gurgeh said:
You probably won't get result overnight.. going to the gym, eating better and generaly speaking trying to spend as little time sitting as possible should do the trick. Find whatever metric you like and try to do more every month.

Kinda suck when the 'I'm young cheat code' runs out, but with some discipline you'll get most of that energy back.
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That’s fair. It’s only been a week. I really abused my body last year with extremely poor diet, alcohol, lack of exercise.
Daidraco said:
Watch the video I linked just above your post, man. It’s spot on and may be the muse to what you should ask your doctor - not that they know how to do more than treat the symptoms of a bunch of shit.
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Wow. I’m only 18 min in and he’s talking about catecholamine in relation to anxiety and dude it describing me to the t…
 
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Khane

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I think it's very fitting that a guy who sounds like a lifelong smoker, and was, apparently an actuary for an insurance company, is reeling people in by mentioning anxiety and then talking about things to feed that anxiety to get you to buy in.

I'm going to create, within you, an obsessive compulsive disorder to create reliance on my micro managing "health" system that is designed to cure your newfound OCD.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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Khane said:
I think it's very fitting that a guy who sounds like a lifelong smoker, and was, apparently an actuary for an insurance company, is reeling people in by mentioning anxiety and then talking about things to feed that anxiety to get you to buy in.

I'm going to create, within you, an obsessive compulsive disorder to create reliance on my micro managing "health" system that is designed to cure your newfound OCD.
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Thats the second time he's been on that podcast, and he addresses a lot of the criticism and judgement, similar to yours, that he got in the last one, in this one. Its not rocket science to acknowledge that you may be deficient in one of the essential vitamins, whether from your poor diet, your exercise, or even your genes. I dont know about you, but I personally dont know how to tell if I have enough B12 in my system, or not, for example. He goes on to list the very cheap alternatives that you can buy in the grocery store to supplement these vitamins. He also says that you can get the "test" he speaks about from several difference vendors that arent specifically him. He seems very genuine, and his children seem to believe in that.

But in this kind of field, I dont blame you one second for thinking hes the equivalent of:
they-put-a-reddit-guy-in-the-show-v0-8qvt4n1tr3vc1.jpeg
 
Kobayashi

Kobayashi

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Daidraco said:
I really encourage some of you guys to listen to this guy. Its a couple hours long, but you can skip around. I started paying attention to what I eat, vitamins, etc. in the last 6 months and I do not feel like the same person I was this time last year. Using his company or doing that test is completely up to you, but a lot of the problems Ive read on here could have been prevented and this guy proves it.
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I'm about a third of the way in. Really interesting so far. Sold me on his panel of tests, so, I started looking in to his company. Never a good sign when prices aren't posted. Looks like it's 600 for the genetic portion (which I'd probably skip) and then another 600 for the blood panel. Honestly seemed reasonable, but going through reviews, seems like a disaster - hidden fees, no response/follow up, etc. It's a shame, really puts a dent in his credibility. I still buy into the premise, so, I guess I'll see if I can convince my PCP to order them.
 
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moonarchia

moonarchia

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Kobayashi said:
I'm about a third of the way in. Really interesting so far. Sold me on his panel of tests, so, I started looking in to his company. Never a good sign when prices aren't posted. Looks like it's 600 for the genetic portion (which I'd probably skip) and then another 600 for the blood panel. Honestly seemed reasonable, but going through reviews, seems like a disaster - hidden fees, no response/follow up, etc. It's a shame, really puts a dent in his credibility. I still buy into the premise, so, I guess I'll see if I can convince my PCP to order them.
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Shouldn't take much convincing if you have any symptoms of... anything really. If you bring in the list of tests and just say you want it to get a baseline on what your numbers look like now before you start on diet/exercise/new meds or whatever it doesn't cost him anything other than a few minutes to send the reqs to quest/labcorp in your area. You might have to do a lot more out of pocket without a diagnosis of something, but you can absolutely get them done. I mean, you could probably make your own list and just go to the testing place and ask them to just do it, but that would be completely out of pocket.
 
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Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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Khane said:
I think it's very fitting that a guy who sounds like a lifelong smoker, and was, apparently an actuary for an insurance company, is reeling people in by mentioning anxiety and then talking about things to feed that anxiety to get you to buy in.

I'm going to create, within you, an obsessive compulsive disorder to create reliance on my micro managing "health" system that is designed to cure your newfound OCD.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I looked up his clinic and tbh it seems like the entire thing is to funnel you into buying their supplements via subscriptions… The reviews suck. Not sure that means he’s completely wrong or completely full of it. It does mean I’m a bit more skeptical of him and would like to do more research
 
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Kobayashi

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moonarchia said:
Shouldn't take much convincing if you have any symptoms of... anything really. If you bring in the list of tests and just say you want it to get a baseline on what your numbers look like now before you start on diet/exercise/new meds or whatever it doesn't cost him anything other than a few minutes to send the reqs to quest/labcorp in your area. You might have to do a lot more out of pocket without a diagnosis of something, but you can absolutely get them done. I mean, you could probably make your own list and just go to the testing place and ask them to just do it, but that would be completely out of pocket.
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I'm not sure why, but the last few PCPs I've had have been complete dicks about this. I've explicitly said I was ok with paying out of pocket for it. Craziest one in my opinion was refusing testing for my blood type - I was going to do a draw already for the standard lipid panel and asked if they could add a blood typing test since I didn't know, to which he flat out refused and said to donate blood if I wanted that info.
 
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moonarchia

moonarchia

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Kobayashi said:
I'm not sure why, but the last few PCPs I've had have been complete dicks about this. I've explicitly said I was ok with paying out of pocket for it. Craziest one in my opinion was refusing testing for my blood type - I was going to do a draw already for the standard lipid panel and asked if they could add a blood typing test since I didn't know, to which he flat out refused and said to donate blood if I wanted that info.
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Doctors are humans like anyone else, and some don't like doing X or Y for whatever reasons. Sometimes there is logic to it, sometimes there isn't. My PCP doesn't like writing prescriptions for anything but the bare minimum. He also believes in the vax. I like him as a person, though, and he is still a decent starting point and someone to bounce ideas off of.

If your doctor doesn't like getting tests done, that's kind of dumb, as there is 0 harm in them taking blood and piss from you. Donating blood was how I learned my blood type.
 
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LiquidDeath

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Kobayashi said:
I'm not sure why, but the last few PCPs I've had have been complete dicks about this. I've explicitly said I was ok with paying out of pocket for it. Craziest one in my opinion was refusing testing for my blood type - I was going to do a draw already for the standard lipid panel and asked if they could add a blood typing test since I didn't know, to which he flat out refused and said to donate blood if I wanted that info.
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If COVID taught us anything it is that doctors are just as susceptible to bullshit programming as anyone else, and it is possibly worse with doctors because they are generally very convinced of their own correctness.

My PCP over COVID continually told me to eat low fat and high carb to reduce my cholesterol despite the fact that she was borderline overweight and I had to be in the top 1% of weight/waist circumference in her practice. I just found a PCP that was not an idiot.
 
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Kithani

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Kobayashi said:
I'm not sure why, but the last few PCPs I've had have been complete dicks about this. I've explicitly said I was ok with paying out of pocket for it. Craziest one in my opinion was refusing testing for my blood type - I was going to do a draw already for the standard lipid panel and asked if they could add a blood typing test since I didn't know, to which he flat out refused and said to donate blood if I wanted that info.
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Why did you want to know your blood type?

Also... you can buy a blood typing test kit on Amazon for $8
 
Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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LiquidDeath said:
If COVID taught us anything it is that doctors are just as susceptible to bullshit programming as anyone else, and it is possibly worse with doctors because they are generally very convinced of their own correctness.

My PCP over COVID continually told me to eat low fat and high carb to reduce my cholesterol despite the fact that she was borderline overweight and I had to be in the top 1% of weight/waist circumference in her practice. I just found a PCP that was not an idiot.
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My PCP at the time of Covid told me that despite not fitting into a risk category that I should get the clot shot “for the greater good” and that I should “probably get the Pfizer shot as Pfizer has been around longer than Moderna”. She blue screened when I started rattling off the Iceland and Israel statistics.
 
C

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Kobayashi said:
and then another 600 for the blood panel. Honestly seemed reasonable
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You can just go to Quest Diagnostics (or wherever) and get whatever test you want done a la carte for far less money than that. No point in going through your PCP because your insurance won't pay for this because it's almost certainly snake oil as a functional product, even if there's some truth to the theory.
 
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