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Vitamin C: Should you take it before and after surgery? Part 2

Posted by on April 17, 2014 6 comments

In Part 1, we found that taking vitamin C after orthopedic surgery is a good idea, and that vitamin C could help in other surgical situations as well. But that’s only half the story. Here’s the other half.

Vitamin C as a prooxidant?

The world of vitamin C was tipped upside down in 1998, with the publication of a controversial paper in the prestigous journal Nature entitled “Vitamin C exhibits pro-oxidant properties”. News media was all over it, predictably warning readers to be afraid…very afraid of taking vitamin C supplements. But the paper had a lot of holes, to put it mildly.

The study showed that some DNA was oxidized by vitamin C, but some DNA was also protected from oxidation by vitamin C (with the protection being around ten times greater in magnitude! A fact that was conveniently left out of the paper.). Plus the experimental technique may have oxidized some DNA by itself. So what happens when throngs of angry vitamin C supporters wrote in to the journal? The primary author backtracked, and his reply concluded “our study shows an overall profound protective effect of this vitamin.” Case closed. Or is it?

IRONing out the details…

Vitamin C is neither always an anti-oxidant or always a pro-oxidant, and not all studies are applicable to what goes on in your body. Take lab mice for example. Unlike humans, mice can synthesize vitamin C, and supplementation can paradoxically reduce their vitamin C levels. In humans, study results are mixed, with most showing either an anti-oxidant effect or no effect, and some showing both anti and pro-oxidant effects. Timing could also be an issue. In a study where vitamin C was added before LDL was experimentally oxidized, it displayed antioxidant properties. But vitamin C actually showed prooxidant properties when added AFTER the LDL was mildly oxidized. So what does this mean for surgery?

First things first: if you have iron overload (for example, due to hereditary haemochromatosis), be careful with high doses of vitamin C, especially during times of surgery. Unbound iron can interact with vitamin C to produce oxidative stress. Iron is typically bound to transfer proteins and largely safe from vitamin C, but a portion of iron stores may be released when tissue is injured and blood vessels are compromised. And when is a large mass of tissue injured? Surgery!

For people without iron overload, the implications of iron and vitamin C interactions are not so clear. There doesn’t seem to be much data about the interaction of vitamin C and iron during the surgical and post-surgical period. In vitro and trial evidence conflicts on whether vitamin C protects or chemically reduces (i.e. harms) iron in humans, and evidence is also mixed on whether vitamin C protects or occasionally causes protein glycation. Vitamin C can have differing effects on oxidation of depending on the target (lipids, proteins, or DNA) as well.

So the takeaway here may simply be: avoid taking supplements that contain iron and too many iron-enriched foods around surgery time (unless you are advised to by your doctor), and don’t go much beyond the PHD-recommended vitamin C intake. If you have a crappy diet and think vitamin C will save you, be careful. Overloading on vitamin C after tissue components are already oxidized could theoretically lead to further oxidation.

Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis

Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis patients often take vitamin C in combination with iron for anemia. That might be a bad idea, as high doses of iron worsen symptoms in Crohn’s patients. Even a single high dose of iron can cause intestinal lining oxidative damage in healthy individuals, and supplementing with quite small amounts of vitamin C and iron together leads to oxidative damage. Iron-enriched diets increase colon cancer in mice and injected vitamin C combined with iron causes ulcers in rats.

The combination of vitamin C, certain metals, and hydrogen peroxide makes up a free-radical generating process called the “Udenfriend system”. Diseased tissue, such as the intestinal tissue in bowel disorders, may contain higher levels of these components. While some in vitro studies show that the Udenfriend system is NOT your friend, others show that it doesn’t cause lipid or protein oxidation in vivo. Without a conclusive answer, it might be prudent to avoid going overboard with vitamin C and iron if you have Crohn’s or UC, especially around surgery.

Other surgeries

There are many different surgeries for many different conditions, and vitamin C hasn’t been studied for most specific examples. One type of surgery that there is evidence for is vascular surgery. In a randomized trial of vascular surgery patients, 2 grams of prophylactic vitamin C was tested for the purpose of decreasing inflammation and tissue damage. It ended up actually increasing oxidative lipid damage, which can lead to further vascular damage. Cardiac surgery can cause tissue injury when blood supply returns after a period of low oxygen. And guess what else happens when blood returns? Extra iron is released from storage, and this iron can theoretically be reduced (damaged) by vitamin C.

Conversely, vitamin C has shown promise for other surgeries. In a study of GI surgery, post-surgical oxidative stress was reduced by taking 500 mg/d of IV vitamin C. Note that IV vitamin C can lead to more than six times higher blood levels than oral intake. Since vitamin C is consumed at high rates during some surgeries, this effect seems logical, and certain patients may be very low in vitamin C before surgery and hence really need a vitamin C boost. Most often, studies combine a few antioxidants rather than testing just one, which makes singling out the effect of vitamin C difficult.

Physical therapy

In some surgeries (e.g. orthopedic surgery), surgery is only the beginning of the treatment. The rest of the treatment comes in the form of grueling, sometimes scream-inducing physical therapy that can last for weeks or months. Since muscles atrophy if a body part isn’t used much before surgery, the post-surgical period is important for muscle growth.

While vitamin C is important for joint healing, there is a small amount of evidence that vitamin C supplementation can interfere with muscle growth. And physical therapy is a combination of growing muscle, healing joints, and re-training the nervous system.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are not universally bad, and one of their important functions is to signal the body to increase protein synthesis as part of the mTOR pathway. Vitamin C in extremely large doses inhibits muscle growth (in rats) by quenching not just bad ROS, but helpful ROS as well. In humans the effect is uncertain, as the impact of supplemental vitamin C varies widely by study. Given the importance of vitamin C in wound healing and collagen formation, it’s likely unwise to avoid vitamin C in the post-surgical period. The takeaway may be to avoid massively overloading on antioxidants in general — large amounts of antioxidants other than vitamin C may impair muscle adaptation to exercise. And taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance directly after physical therapy may be both uncomfortable and unwise.

Conclusion

A healthy diet should support the entire endogenous oxidative system, as antioxidants often work together. So as usual, focus on getting a balance of nutrients from your diet, especially before and after surgery when nutrition is critical for healing tissue.

Vitamin C intake should be at least 500 mg/d after surgery in order to avoid the terrible pain condition RSD/CRPS. Moderate doses of vitamin C typically show benefit for oxidation, and are likely helpful before and after surgery. Only very high doses over extended periods or extremely high IV doses have been linked to adverse events like renal failure, and vitamin C studies typically only show prooxidative effects when combined with iron supplementation or in higher doses.

Curing Ankylosing Spondylitis

Posted by on January 4, 2014 112 comments

UPDATE: Steven has a new video update, to which I have added an updated commentary: Update: Attacking Ankylosing Spondylitis with PHD, November 18, 2014. FURTHER UPDATE, September 2015: Steven has created his own website with more information, www.recoveryfromas.com. Check it out!

Ankylosing spondylitis is a fearsome disease. The Mayo Clinic states:

Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory disease that can cause some of the vertebrae in your spine to fuse together. This fusing makes the spine less flexible and can result in a hunched-forward posture. A severe case of ankylosing spondylitis can make it impossible for you to lift your head high enough to see forward….

Inflammation also can occur in other parts of your body — such as your eyes and bowels.

There is no cure for ankylosing spondylitis, but treatments can decrease your pain and lessen your symptoms.

But the “no cure” part is probably mistaken. Yesterday I received an email from Steven Morgan:

Hey Paul,

Your website and book saved my ass and gave me a chance to recover from Ankylosing Spondylitis, no small feat.  I made a video about it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgjJTLrM3M

There was a thread on your site about high cholesterol and possible causes when going Paleo.  That thread was HUGE in my recovery….  My cholesterol fell over 200 points in two months!

Anyhow, you’re the best.  Thank you!

Cheers,

Steven

Here’s Steven’s story:

In a follow-up email, Steven elaborated:

My health is fantastic lately!  I’m still able to push the edges of what I can tolerate, and am enjoying eating butter, some white-rice based gluten-free breads, some vegetables, and occasionally cheddar cheese.  Sure beats just the 5 foods I took on my trip!  Well, to be honest, after several months of just eating coconut, cacao, pemmican, fish, and white rice, I grew quite fond of it all.  It’s amazing how your palate can change.

I gave Steven a few suggestions that I think would help anyone with AS:

  • Nutrition:
    • Vitamin A (1/4 to 1/3 lb liver per week plus spinach, sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, persimmons)
    • Vitamin D from sun and supplements.
    • Vitamin C
    • Collagen from soups and stews with joints, bones, tendons, and tripe.
    • Zinc and iodine.
  • Circadian rhythm entrainment
  • Intermittent fasting

Steven wants to share experiences with other ankylosing spondylitis sufferers; he asked me to “let folks know I’d be happy to connect; I’m especially interested in connecting with other people who have AS!” You can reach Steven by email at stevenmorganjr@gmail.com.

Conclusion

The Mayo Clinic is correct that medicine offers no cure for ankylosing spondylitis; but diet and lifestyle may do better. AS is probably an infectious condition caused by a pathogenic gut flora. Improved immune function and remodeling of the gut microbiome ought to be able to work a cure.

Steven experimented with a no-starch diet, but had better results on something more PHD like. As we’ve discussed, eating carbs is important for formation of the intestinal mucosal barrier and for proper immune function. A very low-carb diet often delivers short-term relief by starving pathogens, but it doesn’t support a probiotic gut flora and can bring long-term problems from suppressed immunity and impaired gut barrier integrity. That often leads to food sensitivities like those Steven suffered from. It’s better to obtain sufficient dietary carbohydrates to support a healthy gut. White rice is often one of the easier carbs to start with.

Thanks for writing, Steven! Your experiences and video should give hope to AS sufferers everywhere!

Toward a Proof of the PHD

Posted by on June 18, 2013 13 comments

I hope all of our readers enjoyed a happy and healthy Father’s Day.

We had two PHD-related sources of happiness this weekend. On Friday and Saturday we filmed a documentary for Korea’s SBS TV, which will air July 7 in Korea. And then, over the course of the weekend, we heard a number of positive reader stories.

I’d like to share those stories, as a warmup to telling you about about a new venture that will, we expect, create many more health successes.

Reader Results

John Parker is 70 years old and looks fantastic on PHD:

John_Parker_age_70

Well done John!

Antoniette Descisciolo-Rozean is losing weight with ease:

Week 4 Update:

Another half pound bites the dust woot woot!! 😀 😀 😀

This may not sound like a lot to many people, but I don’t have a ton of weight to lose, and I’ve NEVER lost weight as painlessly and naturally as I have on this plan!

I can absolutely do this plan for life and never feel deprived. I still have not counted one calorie, nor have not felt hunger once.

This brings my total loss at close to ten pounds on one month. I am so completely happy with this!!

My husband, who doesn’t need to lose weight, is trimming up. Though he’s lost no weight, his waist is trimming up, his chest is getting more solid, etc.

He has only cut out grains/legumes and has not changed his routine (which is naturally active), yet is experiencing these surprising improvements!

He was previously getting stiffness in his joints, and that has nearly disappeared!

Aaron Macomber has lost 53 pounds and feels ten years younger:

January to June, I’m down 53 pounds on the PHD. I also weight train for 1-1.5hrs 4 days a week, no cardio training at all. I weighed 238lbs when I started and now weigh 185, and still dropping! I’m 40 years old and I feel and look better than I did when I was 30 (now just figure out how to re-grow hair :).

The better part of the story is that the inflammation that I was constantly suffering with is reduced so much it’s incredible! My hands and feet used to ache at the end of the day, and they just don’t anymore. I used to be hot all the time, and was popping advil like they were breath mints, and I just don’t have a need for that anymore. I am still dropping 1-2lbs a week and packing on the muscle fairly fast. I will be seeing my abs for the first time in my life within the next few months and have gone from a 38-40 waist to a 32 already.

Both Antoniette and Aaron left Amazon reviews – thank you very much!

Gill is only two weeks into PHD, but has some results already:

In desperation one night I trawled the web and found your website and thought it was worth a shot. Within a matter of days of kicking gluten for good (not that I ate much wheat anyway but we scots eat a lot of oats) and starting magnesium/selenium/iodine supplements I felt 50% better. Given my deteriorating health over the preceding two years, this was a HUGE improvement. My sinuses, whilst still far from perfect, are feeling considerably better.  My energy levels, whilst still not what they used to be, have definitely picked up.  This is after a fortnight.  I am so excited that I might actually keep improving!!

June is healing:

I have started eating this style of eating introducing bone broths, organ meats, coconut oil, eliminating vegetable oils, sugar amongst other things. One big change I am finding is at 59 I was having problems with the skin on my hands, every little knock cause a a heamatoma type of bruising under the skin, an obvious sign that the collagen in my skin was lacking. Today I gave my hand a big knock & there is only a small bruise.

Also I am having less problems with my knees, so I am sold on the paleo/high fat style of eating.

I haven’t lost a lot of weight but it is stable & body fat percentage is reducing slowly. On a low fat, moderate protein diet my body fat percentage just kept going up & up.

Thank you for your book & the information it provides.

Richard Parker had inflammatory bowel disease for 35 years, now it’s gone:

I have been following the PHD for about 5 months. I had a serious flare of IBD over the Christmas holidays. For several years I had been able to control my symptoms to tolerable levels but this flare was beyond my control with my old diet. I first started with a broth diet for 2 weeks, then elimination diet before I discovered PHD. I lost 30 pounds in a month, which is mot particularly healthy before starting the PHD at the end of January. Several things truly shocked me on PHD that helped. Being able to tolerate fat, cutting down on fruit was good, elimination wheat and whole grain was good, eating egg yolks didn’t raise my cholesterol, eating liver and liking it and switching to goat dairy helped. I had been on a low fat, whole grain, yogurt, low animal protein, probiotic and Chia seed fiber diet before. The Chia seeds had been my savior to slow down the diarrhea. I still eat Chia seeds but just sprinkle them on salads. Today my digestion and elimination system is better than it has been in 35 years. My triglycerides have dropped from 153 to 72. My HDL has risen to 45 after 30 years of HDL between 27 and 35. I drink bone broth every day as I eat 3 egg yolks. The only probiotic I take now is Live Zing Salad. I also take most of the supplements recommended but take them on faith that Paul knows what he is talking about here too. I have never been able to say that I know a supplement has helped. But I wouldn’t stop anything I am doing for fear that the good changes I have experienced would end.

Bill Rafter found that PHD helped him deal with cancer:

About 6 months ago I learned that I had metastatic prostate cancer.  The treatment recommended was hormone therapy and targeted radiation.  The hormone (androgen deprivation) therapy tricks the brain into suppressing testosterone production.  The effects are a total suppression of sexual drive, hot flashes similar to those experienced by menopausal women, and the feeling that one is an old, old man.  The lack of sexual function I could deal with, and the hot flashes just seemed like a good sweat.  But, at 65 and still athletic, I found the last one particularly brutal, and questioned whether I wanted treatment at all.

A friend gave me a good book on cancer, recommending an all-out approach rather than the sequential attempts favored by most oncologists.  Nutrition was a major part of the approach.  I then trolled my friends for books on nutrition and one commented that PHD was the best he had ever read.  I am overwhelmed by what it has done for me.

After reading PHD, I immediately adopted the recommendations in full, with the exception of fasting.  I then went thru 44 radiation treatments, and never felt fatigue, a common symptom.  No more old man feelings, and no thoughts of quitting treatment.  Hot flashes are completely gone, which really puzzles the oncologists. Everyone wants to know what stopped the hot flashes.  The trouble is that because I adopted everything at once, there is no way to identify that which contributed most.  But that’s not all.

Ever since grade school I have been a nailbiter.  I knew the habit was caused by a chemical imbalance, rather than behavioral, but could never figure out what.  But since adopting PHD, my fingernails have grown to the extent that filing them is annoying.  That makes me wonder that if PHD brought my system into balance, how many other imbalanced people could also benefit.  Those people could manifest their imbalance otherwise, say with abuse of alcohol or drugs.

This reduction in cancer therapy side effects may be more significant than mere symptomatic relief. Cancer therapies generally have a very narrow margin between hurting the cancer and hurting normal tissue. A diet that enables normal cells to tolerate cancer therapies better may allow more effective doses of therapy to be used, potentially significantly improving odds of remission.

There are many other great stories on the PHD Facebook group. Our thanks to all who share their results!

Toward a Proof of the PHD

I strongly believe that PHD is, indeed, the most healthful human diet. The science is solid. Moreover, diet seems to have a large influence on health, so adopting PHD can lead to dramatic health improvements. Personal experience, and reader stories like those above, give me confidence in those claims.

But how can we prove PHD to skeptics?

Self-reported reader results don’t convince skeptics because they are an incomplete and biased sample. Those who have good results are enthusiastic and excited and take the time to report their success. Skeptics can always wonder whether there were an equal number of readers with poor results who simply didn’t report their negative experiences. To prove a diet, it is necessary to compile unbiased evidence from a complete sample.

For some time, I’ve been looking ways to generate compelling evidence. At the Ancestral Health Symposium in 2012, I organized a panel discussion (“New Technologies, New Opportunities”) looking at how new technologies such as quantified self tools with automatic data collection via Wifi could help us generate unbiased data on the effects of different diets and lifestyles.

Others in the ancestral health community are also attacking this problem. For example, Gary Taubes and collaborators have created NuSI in an effort to fund clinical trials testing the effects of low-carb diets.

Now, happily, thanks to a new partnership which I’ll announce on Thursday, we are going to have an opportunity to do a fair and unbiased test of PHD’s effectiveness. In fact, it’s already underway. At a secret location in Austin, Texas for the last four to eight weeks, a half dozen people with serious health concerns have been following the PHD diet and lifestyle advice. Every one of them has experienced health improvements. Among the results:

  • A woman who in February was walking with a cane, taking pain medications, and scheduled for knee and hip surgeries is now walking with no difficulty and has stopped her pain medications. A longtime Sjogren’s sufferer, she now has tears. She has lost two inches from her waist, is sleeping better, is happier, and has more energy.
  • A diabetic with fasting blood glucose of 160 now has fasting blood glucose in the 90s. He has lost 7 pounds and 4 inches from his waist.

I will share further details on Thursday, as we still have work to do before a formal launch and announcement. Let me just say – I am excited; I am optimistic that we can make a huge difference in the lives of a number of people; and I believe we will be able to generate convincing proof that a natural diet and lifestyle, along the lines of PHD, is the path to good health.

More coming soon!

Reader Feedback: A Roundup with My Reflections

Posted by on January 15, 2013 53 comments

We were very curious to see how readers would react to the new edition. Some of the reactions I think are interesting.

How Paleo is PHD? How PHD is Paleo?

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to do more on social media. Google+ has “communities” now and a few days ago I started a Perfect Health Dieters community just to see what it’s like. Paul Halliday, proprietor of Living in the Ice Age, left this note:

I bought your book since you were pointed out as someone who was more favourable about the role of carbs and very very much enjoyed the read.

My preconception about the PHD being a pro-carb diet were stopped in their tracks. In fact, the PHD is not a pro-carb diet at all. I read the book as very much a straight down the line paleo book with the inclusion that we need carbs to keep a number of basic bodily functions working as expected.

Two years ago it was totally shocking that a Paleo diet could include white rice (a grain! milled at that!), dairy, and other Neolithic foods. Now we’re “straight down the line paleo.”

In recent weeks, Robb Wolf has endorsed carbs and starches (part 1, part 2, part 3). Terms of our coinage, like “safe starches” and “supplemental foods” (meaning foods that one should eat on a regular schedule for their micronutrients, as people take supplements) have entered the Paleo vernacular. (See, for example, Mark Sisson’s recent post on supplemental foods.)

We couldn’t be happier about this. Not only is it progress toward better health, it is flattering to us.

I think the shift toward less restrictive diets speaks to the maturation of the ancestral health movement. Paleo is becoming a diet that is healthier, tastier, and more accessible and convenient to the general public; and gurus are following the evidence to more scientifically sound recommendations. That bodes well for our movement’s chances to become mainstream.

Responses to Our Obesity Ideas

A fair part of the new material in the book has to do with weight loss and obesity (see What’s New in the New Edition, 2: How to Lose Weight). I’m happy to see that a number of readers found the discussion illuminating.

Mark Lofquist, for instance, paraphrased an important observation from our book:

“Telling an obese person not to eat too much is as effective as telling a person with a cold not to cough too much.” (/paraphrased) -Dr Paul Jaminet

The original line can be found on page 176. Our position is that weight loss results from improved health combined with an energy deficit; eating less food generates an energy deficit but doesn’t necessarily improve health. In fact, if the previous diet was malnourishing, then eating less will make it more malnourishing and therefore will worsen health. The result will often be yo-yo weight regain and obesity that is more severe and intractable than before.

For effective weight loss, therefore, it’s inadequate to tell a person “Don’t eat too much.” You have to tell them how this may be accomplished in a healthful, satisfying way. This is what we try to do.

In fact, it’s best to focus on health first, and then the weight loss becomes easy. In an intelligent Amazon review, Navy87Guy notes:

I think it’s very telling that only a short chapter is actually devoted to the discussion of weight loss — because it is based upon all of the other principles that have already been outlined. The discussion in the weight loss chapter on the scientific origins of obesity is fascinating and sobering at the same time.

Great observation! Little needs to be said about weight loss once it has been explained how to be healthy. Good health leads to easy weight loss.

Have we succeeded in enabling weight loss? On Facebook, Henrik Johnsen shared some good news:

Today I can once again fit 3 pairs of pants that gave up wearing about 8 years ago. I’ve been losing weight steadily for the past 5 months by switching to Perfect Health Diet by Paul Jaminet and I’ve never eating so much fat and tasty food before in my life! Every meal’s a banquet! Thanks Paul! 😀

Kendal Lenton said:

Last week I decided to change my life, been eating great, and already down 8 lbs. Thank you Mark’s Daily Apple and Perfect Health Diet for helping me change my life.

Meanwhile, Laura at This Felicitous Life would like to lose a few pounds, but has been maintaining her weight. She has an idea that may fix that:

I’ve given it a lot of thought and done some scientific research and have come to a very cutting-edge hypothesis:

Maybe I should stop drinking 1/4 cup (or more) of heavy whipping cream in my coffee every day.

Heh. Yes, some people can lose weight eating whatever they want; just choosing healthy foods in the right proportions is enough. Others have to watch portion sizes or, as we discussed in Perfect Health Diet: Weight Loss Version, trim the fat.

It’s sad, but we can’t always have everything we want!

The Healer’s Perspective

One of my recent projects has been helping the Ancestral Health Society set up a new journal, the Journal of Evolution and Health. We have chosen a platform, are about to start editorial operations, and the first issue may appear as early as summer.

One goal of this journal is to document the successful health improvements that are often brought about by ancestral diets and lifestyles. Doctors and other clinicians are the best sources for that information, since they can see how multiple patients respond to the diet, and see negative as well as positive responses. To help bring Perfect Health Dieters and healers together in sufficient numbers to create a critical mass of knowledge, I’ve created a Healers page, and I invite healing professionals who would like to investigate the value of the Perfect Health Diet to list themselves there.

One medical doctor who has been recommending our book to patients is Dr. Shira Miller of The Integrative Center in Los Angeles. She wrote recently to say that “my patients are loving the book.”

Over at Amazon, Dr. Verne Weisberg says our book is “seriously important” and writes, “As a physician who treats obesity, I highly recommend that anyone looking to correct any of the multitude of ailments that stem from diet give careful consideration to what they have to say.”

I really liked the Amazon review from Denise Baxter, a certified health coach:

My clients are overjoyed with the changes they are experiencing in their bodies and their minds. They find their meals more enjoyable and easier to prepare. They appreciate being able to fix one meal for the entire family. One of my diabetics was able to lower her insulin yet again, and reduce her blood sugars even further by adding some safe starches. Although she had a great deal of trepidation about doing so, she loves the results.

This book is a gem and has answered many of my long standing questions. Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet have made an enormous contribution with their many years of work. I will not be surprised to see their work make a significant difference in the health of our nation.

Other Amazon Reviews

R.U. Kidding-Me made me laugh:

As I read through this book there were quite a few what I like to call “Holy s*** moments” where I was so happy to read things that actually make sense.

In the end, even if you did not agree with or understand all of it, you emerge from this book like one does from a fog and you realize that you are definitely smarter than the person sitting next to you 🙂 Whoa! Mind blowing!!

Justin Sutherland:

Despite being full of research, the book is a pleasure to read and is easy to follow. I kept turning pages and saying to myself, “well, when you put it that way, of course!”

T., Quinton left a heartfelt review:

Although I wouldn’t wish illness on anyone, I’m grateful that the Jaminet’s were able to contribute immensely to society as a whole while conquering their own illnesses…. I have lost weight even though I’m not trying to, and am rarely hungry.

Navy87Guy has a complaint:

My only complaint is that they use the word “diet” in the title. While they use it in the academic sense (i.e., the foods that you habitually eat to provide sustenance), too many people only think of “diet” as a restriction in your food intake to promote weight loss. I prefer to think of the authors’ book as a “lifestyle”, rather than simply a prescription for changing your food intake. That view is reinforced by the holistic treatment of the impacts of circadian rhythm disruption on health – a fascinating chapter that probably could have as much impact on your overall health as your choice of food!

TMac had the same thought: “It pains me that the Jaminets decided to call their plan the Perfect Health Diet, rather than the Perfect Health Lifestyle.”

We liked G. Nesta’s comment:

When something just makes sense and seems right, you know it. I am basically back to the diet of my parents and grandparents who lived into their 80s and were active and happy their entire lives. This is my favorite diet/health book that i have read.

Our thanks to everyone who has left an Amazon review!

Vegetarian Concerns

I’m planning a post or series of posts looking at the healthfulness of vegetarian diets. Recently Beth, a vegetarian considering a switch, asked about T. Colin Campbell’s claim that protein causes cancer. Elyse L offered some good advice for former vegetarians considering PHD:

Many folks following PHD (and Paleo) are former vegetarians or vegans. For me, I started digging into all of the information out there pro and con and finally decided to just give it a try and see how I feel. For me, I had immediate relief from lethargy, allergies and arthritis. What’s the worst that can happen? Give it a few weeks and see how you feel. If you listen to your body it will tell you what’s best.

The commenters on Allison’s post

Allison’s tale of her ongoing recovery from panic disorder, OCD, and chronic fatigue brought fascinating comments from readers who are addressing similar chronic diseases.

Jennifer has benefited from homeopathy and PHD:

The Perfect Health diet helped me in many ways. I lost weight that I could never lose and improved my cognition and memory. I also felt more together and calmer than I ever had in my life but I still had panic attacks. I had certain triggers that couldn’t be erased. So when my daughter got PANDAS, I did a lot of research and read a lot of accounts of children being helped by homeopathy (I know….I hear the collective groans of disbelief)….. My daughter and I have been going to [a practitioner of the heilkunst method of homeopathy] once a month since September. Most of her issues have been completely resolved and I am completely panic free and my insomnia (which I had for over a year…could not sleep without drugs) is completely resolved. I have inner strength that I have never had and I sleep like a baby…. I know many people are skeptical about homeopathy or know little about it but I am proof that it works … I do credit the Perfect Health diet for allowing homeopathy to work as spectacularly as it has for me since I think my issues would remain chronic if I weren’t on an optimal diet.

We believe chronic infections are an under-recognized cause of disease, and Hunter’s wife illustrates that thesis. She benefited from antiviral treatments:

Allison, everything you describe sounds like you could be my wife Tiffany in another life!

A couple years ago Tiffany decided to stop taking birth control and her health took a turn for the worse as those hormones were apparently helping to keep her “functioning” all the previous years and she suddenly developed amenorrhea and hypothyroidism. Finding an endocrinologist who would actually agree that she was hypothyroid was impossible but we kept trying until she eventually progressed to be so bad that she was officially diagnosed but after trying many different thyroid medications, none ever helped her “feel” better and no one could find the cause of her thyroid issues. We finally came across an ad in the paper for a chiropractor who said he specialized in thyroid disorders and chronic fatigue syndrome so we went to see him and he ordered hundreds of blood tests looking for infections. In the end he diagnosed her with a chronic viral infection of Epstein-Barr Virus (mono) among a couple others and he told us that he has seen this in multiple patients and Epstein-Barr is always related to chronic fatigue and thyroid issues. Chiropractors cannot prescribe medicine in the state of Florida so he transferred her to a semi-retired infectious disease specialist who he had worked with for previous patients, Dr David Reifsnyder in Lakeland, FL. Dr Reifsnyder agreed that Epstein-Barr is the main cause of her hypothyroidism and chronic fatigue and told us how he has treated hundreds of patients for this throughout his career and that they always have active Epstein-Barr infections but that most doctors don’t know how to test and diagnose an active chronic Epstein-Barr infection, even before he could test for the virus he said that he discovered patients with these symptoms would respond to antiviral treatment, and that Tiffany would have to take antivirals daily for the next 2-4 years but that he was sure this would eventually clear up all of her issues, however recovery would be a slow process as her HPA axis recovered and got “back into sync”.

We noticed her improving almost immediately after starting the daily antivirals and it’s now almost 1 year later and she’s stopped taking antidepressants and just seems to have no desire to visit psychiatrists any more, something she had been doing for all of her adult life, I think they had tried putting her on every antidepressant possible over the years. She has also stopped taking thyroid medications and her body has normalized her thyroid levels on its own. She doesn’t have fatigue issues any more, she wakes up feeling more refreshed in the mornings and doesn’t want to sleep all day any more, she’s even started wanting to exercise and go jogging, something she enjoyed as a kid on the school track team but had given up as she got older and dealt with these issues. And after 1.5 years with a complete absense of her menstrual cycle her female sex hormones have normalized on their own and her regular menstrual cycle returned.

Jo had also suffered from panic disorder and other problems, but is doing better after getting antimicrobial treatment and eating PHD:

My life has been marked by fears – they literally dictated most of my choices. Finally, a diagnosis of autoimmunity that triggered an 8-year long search for remedies. I started addressing gut infections – gut imbalances and H.Pylori – then herpes viruses, then mono then, under Paul’s suggestion, I requested a course of fluconazole for a fungal skin condition that might actually be systemic. I saw improvements only when I addressed these infections together with a PHD compliant diet. The tics are still with me and are cyclical – which makes me think of some parasite I have not identified yet. But many other symptoms disappeared and for the first time I have a different perspective in life. In addition to infections I had several nutrient deficiencies – I was prone to break bones and hurt myself continuously, partly because of an anxious behavior and partly because of low vitamin D. I know very well what you mean about overcoming the memories and the habit of living life to cater fears. Plus, I spent so much time finding a psychological cause, torturing myself with any possible technique to train my mind…I wish I had known.

There is a great need for better diagnostic tools, better treatments, and more doctors who are willing to investigate and address chronic infectious conditions. But hopefully these stories will help move medicine in the right direction.

Last But Not Least

In my New Year’s Day post I quoted Jennifer Fulwiler to the effect that she was having a comfortable sixth pregnancy:

I have been following the PHD for this pregnancy. The results have been amazing. In fact, with all five of my previous pregnancies I had debilitating, severe morning sickness. On the PHD, I had almost none!…

[A]fter I had my fifth child I found myself tired, achy, and 35 pounds overweight. Thanks to the PHD I lost all the weight, and when the show was filmed, in my first trimester of pregnancy with my sixth child, I weighed the same as I did the day I got married, and felt better than I ever had in my life.

Fortune being fickle, soon afterward Jennifer experienced shortness of breath and checked into a hospital. Pregnancy is a risk factor for clotting, and Jennifer is homozygous for a mutation which leads to overproduction of Factor II (prothrombin). Her clotting disorder, which is shared by about 1 person in 10,000, was discovered during her second pregnancy when she suffered deep vein thrombosis. This time around the clotting caused pulmonary embolisms.

It’s impossible to know whether it contributed, but a few weeks before symptoms began Jennifer began taking a multivitamin with a number of coagulation-modulating ingredients. I may as well reiterate here for those trying to follow our diet without reading the new edition: One of the updated bits of advice is that we now recommend AGAINST taking a multivitamin, even in pregnancy.

Jennifer is at home and has resumed blogging, but I know she would appreciate prayers.