- Messages
- 2,171
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Vitamins
I've also found out that there are a bunch of things I should have been looking at but wasn't - I now know I need to know my levels of vitamin D , potassium, and magnesium I had already started supplementing them because I now know that my LCHF diet will deplete them - I've not gone far enough - I need to add more of these supplements to my diet to get to an ideal Vitamin D level of 100+ I've currently increased it from 33 to 43 - but it should be 100 mmol or even more . I now know that this is IMPORTANT.
I will take Vitamin D and magnesium tablets as supplements and add in Vitamin K because I now know that Vitamin D isn't absorbed well without vitamin K. - My potassium and sodium is ok, which for sodium is odd because I don't eat much salt - having said that my salt levels are at the maximum end of the range so no salt increase despite the PURE study ! .
Ferritin range 13-150
I have always been prone to iron deficiency and this latest test tells me that while I am in the normal range overall it's not improving but going backwards - rapidly 82 mmol march 2017 , 42 June. 207 - not good at all Low ferritin also increases blood pressure issues. I've noticed that my blood pressure numbers are getting worse recently- that seems to correlate with the reduction in ferritin. So I need to take an iron supplement again.
Inflammation
My doctor has mentioned "inflammation" for years - every time there was some vague mention of "a cold, a poorly knee, a headache" It never occurred to me that inflammation mattered much - of course I was inflamed - I'd just had a cough/bruise, whatever , hadn't I?
Then I got diagnosed with diabetes and I had an inkling that somehow maybe all those prior reports of inflammation mattered - though I wasn't sure why . So that' why I stuck down the figure for ESR in my signature and was pleased when it got better. Since then I've read up about "inflammation" especially stuff by Dr Jason Fung - who seems to make such sense of complicated subjects.
Now I understand inflammation for what it is - a sign that whatever I am doing is really damaging my body and it's in everything - it's the entire haematology profile and its also ESR, and C Reactive Protein. If my body has much ESR or CRP , then it is working hard to fight off something somewhere .
ESR is a marker for kidney failure it has a range of 0-19 and back in 1997 my ESR was only 3. It's been rising ever since 2001 and I should have spotted way back then that rising to 13 was not a good trend. By Sept 2014 I was way outside the normal range hitting 43. I don't actually know what it was on diabetes diagnosis - because the sample came back QNS - which I now know is Quantity Not Sufficient -both in August last year and my first follow up in October. At the time the idea of quantity not sufficient didn't seem to matter that much so I didn't redo the test - my guess is it was probably sky high. One year into LCHF and I have finally managed to bring ESR back within range for the first time since 2007 with a score of 16 . I've also realised now that practically all of these good figures back in 1997 correspond with a successful diet, when I weighed something similar to today.
C Reactive Protein deals with acute stuff , it should be 0-5 and that seems to be the one that will go up if something actually hurts. My score this time round is 4.1 - the first time it's been in range since diagnosis and it sees entirely reasonable I should have some, because my knee did hurt from all that bicycling. I don't have many records of this historically , I only found out about it because in 2011 I got severe sepsis - severe enough to hospitalised me and that gave me a reading of 400 plus !!!
Blood Composition
Haemoglobin range 120-150 . I've always been prone to iron deficiency and sure enough my figures are trotting back along that path 146 at diagnosis, down to 129 - This should be nearer 135, another confirmation to take some iron tablets.
Red Blood count range 3.8-4.8. Consistent with the tendency to iron deficiency I've always had a relatively low red blood count ( around 3.9 ) though surprise, surprise at diagnosis last year even this had got above normal at 5.0 . Six months into LCHF and I'm at the exact mid-point and its stayed that way since. All hail to LCHF.
I now understand that Neutrophils have a preference to engulf refined carbohydrates (from ingested glucose, fructose, sucrose, honey and orange juice over bacteria and so when I eat a diet high in carbs I end up with a lot of neutrophils, with less space for the other stuff as a proportion. My Lymphocytes help my immune system. My Epsinophils helps me deal with allergies , My Basilophils include heparin and histamine and thus help keep blood flowing and hay fevers down. The good news is that my LCHF has reduced my need for Neutrophils and so I have a higher proportion of these other good things than I've have ever had - these ratios can get even better if I carry on going. Neutrophils are down from a high of 72.5% of my blood composition to 58.8% - It seems that 50% would be ideal. Interestingly the last time I was very successful at the weight loss I still ended up with 70% + Neutrophils because that was a high carb, low fat diet. I haven't noticed any adverse reactions to for example hay and pollen this year - maybe this is why. So losing weight has been good for me, byt LCHF has been better for my blood than HCLF
I've also found out that there are a bunch of things I should have been looking at but wasn't - I now know I need to know my levels of vitamin D , potassium, and magnesium I had already started supplementing them because I now know that my LCHF diet will deplete them - I've not gone far enough - I need to add more of these supplements to my diet to get to an ideal Vitamin D level of 100+ I've currently increased it from 33 to 43 - but it should be 100 mmol or even more . I now know that this is IMPORTANT.
I will take Vitamin D and magnesium tablets as supplements and add in Vitamin K because I now know that Vitamin D isn't absorbed well without vitamin K. - My potassium and sodium is ok, which for sodium is odd because I don't eat much salt - having said that my salt levels are at the maximum end of the range so no salt increase despite the PURE study ! .
Ferritin range 13-150
I have always been prone to iron deficiency and this latest test tells me that while I am in the normal range overall it's not improving but going backwards - rapidly 82 mmol march 2017 , 42 June. 207 - not good at all Low ferritin also increases blood pressure issues. I've noticed that my blood pressure numbers are getting worse recently- that seems to correlate with the reduction in ferritin. So I need to take an iron supplement again.
Inflammation
My doctor has mentioned "inflammation" for years - every time there was some vague mention of "a cold, a poorly knee, a headache" It never occurred to me that inflammation mattered much - of course I was inflamed - I'd just had a cough/bruise, whatever , hadn't I?
Then I got diagnosed with diabetes and I had an inkling that somehow maybe all those prior reports of inflammation mattered - though I wasn't sure why . So that' why I stuck down the figure for ESR in my signature and was pleased when it got better. Since then I've read up about "inflammation" especially stuff by Dr Jason Fung - who seems to make such sense of complicated subjects.
Now I understand inflammation for what it is - a sign that whatever I am doing is really damaging my body and it's in everything - it's the entire haematology profile and its also ESR, and C Reactive Protein. If my body has much ESR or CRP , then it is working hard to fight off something somewhere .
ESR is a marker for kidney failure it has a range of 0-19 and back in 1997 my ESR was only 3. It's been rising ever since 2001 and I should have spotted way back then that rising to 13 was not a good trend. By Sept 2014 I was way outside the normal range hitting 43. I don't actually know what it was on diabetes diagnosis - because the sample came back QNS - which I now know is Quantity Not Sufficient -both in August last year and my first follow up in October. At the time the idea of quantity not sufficient didn't seem to matter that much so I didn't redo the test - my guess is it was probably sky high. One year into LCHF and I have finally managed to bring ESR back within range for the first time since 2007 with a score of 16 . I've also realised now that practically all of these good figures back in 1997 correspond with a successful diet, when I weighed something similar to today.
C Reactive Protein deals with acute stuff , it should be 0-5 and that seems to be the one that will go up if something actually hurts. My score this time round is 4.1 - the first time it's been in range since diagnosis and it sees entirely reasonable I should have some, because my knee did hurt from all that bicycling. I don't have many records of this historically , I only found out about it because in 2011 I got severe sepsis - severe enough to hospitalised me and that gave me a reading of 400 plus !!!
Blood Composition
Haemoglobin range 120-150 . I've always been prone to iron deficiency and sure enough my figures are trotting back along that path 146 at diagnosis, down to 129 - This should be nearer 135, another confirmation to take some iron tablets.
Red Blood count range 3.8-4.8. Consistent with the tendency to iron deficiency I've always had a relatively low red blood count ( around 3.9 ) though surprise, surprise at diagnosis last year even this had got above normal at 5.0 . Six months into LCHF and I'm at the exact mid-point and its stayed that way since. All hail to LCHF.
I now understand that Neutrophils have a preference to engulf refined carbohydrates (from ingested glucose, fructose, sucrose, honey and orange juice over bacteria and so when I eat a diet high in carbs I end up with a lot of neutrophils, with less space for the other stuff as a proportion. My Lymphocytes help my immune system. My Epsinophils helps me deal with allergies , My Basilophils include heparin and histamine and thus help keep blood flowing and hay fevers down. The good news is that my LCHF has reduced my need for Neutrophils and so I have a higher proportion of these other good things than I've have ever had - these ratios can get even better if I carry on going. Neutrophils are down from a high of 72.5% of my blood composition to 58.8% - It seems that 50% would be ideal. Interestingly the last time I was very successful at the weight loss I still ended up with 70% + Neutrophils because that was a high carb, low fat diet. I haven't noticed any adverse reactions to for example hay and pollen this year - maybe this is why. So losing weight has been good for me, byt LCHF has been better for my blood than HCLF
