12 replies to this topic

[Michael Lustgarten]

https://www.youtube....h?v=RFGtc6cj1AU

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[johnhemming]

I like your videos because few people discuss their own blood tests.

 

I have been having weekly blood tests for a few months now although I have not had one this week and intend if I can having one on Monday/Tuesday. I was waiting for some bruising to go down as I want to see bilirubin without it being affected by bruising.  Your approach and mine are different.  My reason for having weekly tests was to monitor the effect of my protocol and it has been helpful in guiding me on changes to make although biomarkers like MCV take quite a while to shift.

 

What I do find is that my phenoage moves up and down quite a bit, but I think I understand the reasons.  I had a particular problem with blood cell creation which was I think partially a micronutrient issue and partially an alcohol consumption issue (which may have caused the micronutrient problem).  I think I have fixed that.  I had evidence in a big drop in bilirubin from 8.7-4 mcmol/L, but it went up again with the bruising.

 

 

[Cloomis]

Outstanding work in tracking the correlation for individual components back to your blood test results.

 

Have you gone organic? In particular, strawberries are a high-pesticide residue food, and you're eating a lot of them.

 

Here's the recent study that shows that consumption of high-pesticide residue foods blunts the health benefits of plants: https://www.scienced...60412021006498#

 

Strawberries have a Pesticide Residue Burden Score (PRBS) of 6, which is the highest rating: https://www.scienced...01934807X#t0005

[Cloomis]

I did a comparison of your diet with my research on ideal servings by food category for longevity.

 

I estimate you could gain:

• 1.8 years of life by adding four servings of legumes to your diet
• 1.2 years by boosting fish from 1 serving to 4/day.
• 0.7 years by adding another 30g of whole grains

 

That said, it appears the primary principle of your diet is a preference for red/orange foods. Over 50% by weight! I hadn't realized red foods were so healthy. Perhaps you should limit yourself to only the red M&Ms, for better results.

[johnhemming]

Its often the anthacyanins which may turn into the active form of ferulic acid.  I suppose you could pop a red M&M and some ferulic acid for that effect.  It would also provide a bit of copper from the chocolate.  Personally I take copper supplementation instead.

[Michael Lustgarten]

Outstanding work in tracking the correlation for individual components back to your blood test results.

 

Have you gone organic? In particular, strawberries are a high-pesticide residue food, and you're eating a lot of them.

 

Here's the recent study that shows that consumption of high-pesticide residue foods blunts the health benefits of plants: https://www.scienced...60412021006498#

 

Strawberries have a Pesticide Residue Burden Score (PRBS) of 6, which is the highest rating: https://www.scienced...01934807X#t0005

 

Thanks Cloomis, almost exclusively organic. Occasional exceptions are foods where I don't eat the skin, like bananas.

In terms of a life-expectancy gain for the foods that you mentioned, I appreciate the insight, but which biomarkers would you expect to improve? I'm already at youthful or close to youthful levels for all the biomarkers on aging.ai and Levine's test. While I appreciate the epi studies, I prefer having lots of my own data more, which I find to be more informative about health.

[Cloomis]

Great job on finding half a kilo of organic strawberries per day! I can't find that at all where I live.

 

Your own data are the best indicator for how changes will affect your biomarkers. You ate about 100g of sardines and about 100g of barley and oats. Were the net correlations for those positive?

 

Have you eaten beans since you started your records? If not, you might try adding a serving or two to start gathering your own data.

 

By the way, why do you still eat red bell peppers? It has a net negative correlation from your latest test, so you reduced the amount, but I would think the appropriate action would be to stop eating them entirely. Is it a comfort food for you? 

[Michael Lustgarten]

Great job on finding half a kilo of organic strawberries per day! I can't find that at all where I live.

 

Your own data are the best indicator for how changes will affect your biomarkers. You ate about 100g of sardines and about 100g of barley and oats. Were the net correlations for those positive?

 

Have you eaten beans since you started your records? If not, you might try adding a serving or two to start gathering your own data.

 

By the way, why do you still eat red bell peppers? It has a net negative correlation from your latest test, so you reduced the amount, but I would think the appropriate action would be to stop eating them entirely. Is it a comfort food for you? 

 

I get the strawberries frozen, which helps with finding them

Net correlations for sardines and barley following Test #5 in 2022: +5 and +3, respectively

I've occasionally included chickpeas, but took them out because they didn't affect the big picture biomarkers. I have relatively high levels of igG against some legumes, and experience GI issues when eating them (kidney beans, for example, but not chickpeas), so I've limited them, for now

Red bell peppers are a rich source of beta-cryptoxanthin, a carotenoid that is associated with a younger epigenetic age (see https://www.youtube....h?v=Hvk1wvDmlms). Butternut squash is also a good source, but I prefer the taste of RBP relative to the squash

I try my best to limit comfort foods, as that's a dangerous road for me (it leads to overeating). If I eat junk, I try to limit it to the 2 days after the blood test, then not again for the ~50-day period until the next test

[Cloomis]

Ah, frozen. That works, but I find frozen not nearly as tasty as fresh. Do you eat them in a juicer?

 

How do you get the beets? That's another great food, but hard to find fresh and organic. Canned? Frozen?

 

Carotenoids have benefits, but I'm not sure the benefits to scale to your levels of intake. For reference, here's a meta-study that reviews carrot intake vs. mortality. The ACM benefits are clearly reducing after 4 mg of beta carotene, which is about one 60g carrot per day.

 

Could you provide access to a spreadsheet of your foods along with correlation to each biomarker from your tests? As a mathematician, I'd love to run some numbers and create a diet from zero that would break Levine's Phenoage test. I bet with a targeted diet, we could take another 10 years off the Phenoage test. 

[Michael Lustgarten]

Ah, frozen. That works, but I find frozen not nearly as tasty as fresh. Do you eat them in a juicer?

 

How do you get the beets? That's another great food, but hard to find fresh and organic. Canned? Frozen?

 

Carotenoids have benefits, but I'm not sure the benefits to scale to your levels of intake. For reference, here's a meta-study that reviews carrot intake vs. mortality. The ACM benefits are clearly reducing after 4 mg of beta carotene, which is about one 60g carrot per day.

 

Could you provide access to a spreadsheet of your foods along with correlation to each biomarker from your tests? As a mathematician, I'd love to run some numbers and create a diet from zero that would break Levine's Phenoage test. I bet with a targeted diet, we could take another 10 years off the Phenoage test. 

 

Nope, I don't juice-you lose some of the fiber. I make smoothies instead, fully blended with beets, berries, parsley, flax, and occasional flavoring agents (ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla bean)

Raw organic beets from Whole Foods

All published studies should be evaluated at the individual level. For carotenoids, in conjunction with blood testing (up to 39 depending on the biomarker since 2015), too much is possible for beta-carotene, for example, as its net correlative score is strongly negative. That suggests that too much beta-carotene (for me) may not be beneficial for health, but it's also significantly correlated with higher albumin in my data, so I go high, but not too high. Most published dietary studies are terrible in terms of diet quality-it's like comparing people who are sick vs sicker. There's almost no published data for diets > 75g/d for any health-related outcomes.

For the last point, I'll likely livestream on my YT channel in the afternoon on Sept 18, and will show the correlations between macros, micros, and individual foods with each biomarker. I disagree about another 10 years-even with the most youthful data, at best the maximum reduction is ~20y relative to chronological age for Levine's test. I'm already at ~15y less in 2022, and the only biomarker of the 9 that would further reduce the score is creatinine. Everything else is youthful, so going much lower for biological age using that metric isn't realistic.

[Cloomis]

Yes, at >75g/day of anything, it will be hard to find studies. I'm not sure that mega doses of a food are that much healthier than eating a variety of healthy foods. As you note, too much beta-carotene is a bad thing, and other foods may have similar effects or their benefits may be capped at a much lower level. For instance, Dr. Greger likes to eat half a kilo of green leaves a day (?!), but epidemiological studies indicate over 50g per day is not providing additional benefit.

 

Looking forward to your Youtube livestream!

[Cloomis]

Oops. Saw your latest YT post, and it doesn't include the full correlations. Did I miss a livestream?

[Michael Lustgarten]

Hi Cloomis, I didn't have time to fit the livestream in this week-October may work better. Which correlations would you like to see? I can post them here, or send them to you.