Ok, My Heart’s Beating, but They just Made it Stop Cold

This one raised the most questions for me. I do have heart issues, but they aren’t the ones typically associated with overweight. My blood pressure used to be very low and now is well within the healthy range of normal (usually around 100/70), my resting pulse rate is very low (hovering around 50 – average is 60-80). I do regularly skip a few beats, (but sadly, this doesn’t appear to be related to that certain someone making my socks go up and down).

So, why would I have variations in my genes that affect blood flow, but my blood pressure and heart rate are low rather than high? Does it affect blood flow both ways? So, I asked my trusty Sciona staffers who are here to answer my questions. And, frankly, the answer is pretty technical (to me at least), but I’ve posted it below if your curiosity is overwhelming.* Suffice it to say, that I either have other genes with variations that are helpful and/or I’m doing a good job with diet and lifestyle. Hooray for me and/or my genes.

So to review the recommendations:

I’m consuming as much A, B, C and E vitamins as anyone might hope (for the most part, 3X the minimum). My antioxidants are all good. I need to increase my Omega-3’s (I’m already on that with the insulin sensitivity results); reduce my cholesterol intake; lose weight and exercise more. So I’m pretty much already on target for all the recommendations, since these are pretty much the same ones they made for insulin sensitivity.

Again, this is an area where I need to move the bar a fair distance left to right. The one thing they recommend that has never come up for me before is to reduce my cholesterol intake. Since my cholesterol levels were all good the last time I had them tested, (which admittedly, was a while ago), I haven’t focused on this.

I do have an egg for breakfast about three times a week (and I do cook it in saturated fat – I know, I know, this habit has to go – but it tastes so good), and I eat the yolk (in fact, without the yolk, I doubt I’d bother with an egg, unlike my friend who only eats egg whites – Yuck). Other than that I eat very little butter and cook everything else in olive oil, so I’m good there. The only other thing I can do is cut down on how much meat and – gasp! – dairy fat I eat, which will probably help the weight thing anyway.

This means the cheese has got to go. (Be still my heart.) And based on my need to reduce HGL (High Glycemic Load) foods (see insulin sensitivity entry), - which includes crackers - my very favorite cheese/crackers and wine pastime will be history, or, at least, a rare treat. They’re killing me here. Over the last decade or so, I have learned not to have cheese, wine, crackers and dinner. So, on the nights I’m really in the mood for this, I make it my dinner. I only do this about once a week at most. Maybe I still can if I watch the other stuff – I’ll have to see how this goes. I would rather eat meat only once a week and give up the eggs altogether than give up my cheese and crackers. In the following weeks, I’m going to investigate the relative merits of each.

All right, I’m getting tired of analyzing the results and want to get on to actually implementing all of this learning, however, I have two more to go. Next entry is about inflammation.

Questions:

How much meat do you eat? Is that the worst saturated fat you consume? What’s your weakness?

If you had to choose between eggs, meat and cheese, which would be the hardest to give up (or reduce drastically)?

How much do you worry about your blood pressure and cholesterol?

Do you know your resting pulse rate? How is it?

* For the eNOS and ACE genes, you actually have one common version (in genetic speak, “allele”) and one variant allele–you’re a “carrier” for the variant rather than having two variants. Usually having two variants is a double whammy and only one gives you an intermediate result sort of between the common (”normal”) version and the variant version.

Remember, too, that there are many other genes that influence blood pressure and pulse rate. These two are important and their impact can be modified by diet and lifestyle but they’re not the only factors contributing to BP and pulse rate. Sounds like you have other genes with versions that are helpful here and/or you’re doing a good job with your diet and lifestyle choices.

For Me, It Ain’t the Sweets

Well, the folks at Sciona may think my biggest concern ought to be my antioxidants (and I respect their expertise); however, I, personally, am making the executive decision to overrule that call as I focus on areas of concern.

When they review my overall chart – go to the first results blog – they’re looking from bottom to top for areas of concern, and it’s true my antioxidant marker is marginally below my heart health, but it’s really far to the left (which is the good side, since, fundamentally, one wants to be as close to the top righthand corner as possible).

However, my insulin sensitivity marker is hanging all the way out there over to the left, , and the distance they want me to cover is greater than I need to cover with the antioxidants. Since my antioxidant consumption already exceeds goals and all I need to do to remedy this area is keep up with the antioxidants and increase my broccoli and onions, I feel as though this is – more or less – already under control.

However, my recommendations to improve my insulin sensitivity are to exercise more, lose weight and consume more Omega-3’s. This will be much harder to do and will likely affect the other areas positively anyway. I mean, if I need to lose weight, odds are good I’ll be eating more broccoli and onions anyway, right?

So, moving forward, I’m focusing most on improving my insulin sensitivity despite Sciona’s recommendations. Insulin sensitivity has to do with the body’s ability to respond accurately to insulin. When sensitivity is reduced, the body produces more insulin, which stores glycogen for use as energy or fuel by the body’s cells. Which, if I’ve sussed this out correctly, could lead to overweight.

Now, according to my results, I consume somewhere in the right neighborhood of carbs and fats; however, I’m shy on the Omega-3’s. And it’s funny that this is true, because I feel like I eat a fair bit of fish, but clearly, just not enough or not enough of the right types of fish (those highest in Omega-3’s). Again, I beat the national standards, but none of us is consuming as much as we ought to. So, more fish.

The thing is that when I think of insulin, I think of sugar. And sugar is not my bugaboo. Salty/savory snacks are. I don’t drink soda or fruit juice, I don’t sugar my tea (hot or iced), I don’t care about chocolate and other sweets. Most Halloweens, I pull a bag of last year’s leftover candy out of the freezer (I know, you don’t want to trick or treat at my house now, do you? But I do buy the big bars and I always buy one new bag, which is how I end up with leftovers – if you trick or treat at my house, just ask me which are the new candy bars), but I won’t buy potato chips because they would be gone in a second.

So I am exploding another of my personal myths, that somehow insulin sensitivity would be linked to simple sugar consumption. I am a carb freak (a tendency I work to combat), and therein lies the problem. I don’t think of bread/cracker carbs as High Glycemic Load foods, but they are. And I do think of fruit as High Glycemic (because it seems sugary, whereas bread doesn’t), but it’s not. So I need to rethink my relationship to crackers, cereal, bread and fruit (which I need more of).

However, when I tried the no-carb diets, my body virtually shut down. I couldn’t think, move, talk, anything. I felt sicker than the worst flu or bronchitis I’ve ever had. I’m not willing to do that again. Historically, I’ve done well on low-fat diets, so will focus on that, but will keep a close eye on the carbs anyway.

They also suggest more exercise, which is fair enough. As I mentioned earlier, I have a very lively dog who has already increased my energy output some. We walk for at least 40 mins every day. And I live on the middle of a very steep hill, so there is no direction to walk without including a fairly steep incline either coming or going. But he will figure prominently in any more ambitious exercise endeavor. And boy will he be glad.

Questions:

I believe that people tend toward either sweets or salt, which are you? Does anyone crave both equally?

How’d you do on the no-carb diet? Did anyone’s body just shut down as mine did?

For those who have done this program, did you overrule any recommendations you received? Did you check with a health expert first?

My body versus yours

All right, so the result that was a big surprise to me: antioxidants. I really expected to ace this section of the test (how competitive can one woman be? Clearly, this isn’t the sort of test one aces, but alas, it’s how I think of it.) I eat all (ok, mostly), the right things; I drink only tea (no coffee) and a fair bit of it, alternating between black, green and white (highest in antioxidants). Even in winter, when most tomatoes are useless red pieces of cardboard, I pay extra for imported and/or heirloom tomatoes so I’ll eat them. I froze piles of blueberries last summer, love broccoli, crave garlic and onions and drink red wine (my favorite part). I should have antioxidants flying out of every pore.

The report explains that antioxidants neutralize free radicals, which can attack DNA, proteins and fats in our cells. And detoxification, logically, removes the toxins we take in from food, water, air or our own bodies. If our antioxidant/detoxification systems aren’t working well, then our bodies won’t function optimally. Rats.

So, how do I increase my intake of antioxidants? And how is it possible that I need more when I know for certain that I consume many more antioxidants than the average human?

And therein lies the beauty of this program: my DNA says I need more antioxidants than nearly anyone because my body isn’t working as optimally as it should in this way. So, here I was, reading – and exceeding – all the published guidelines and feeling quite virtuous about my antioxidant intake, only to discover that for this body, it still may not be enough.

The later charts compare my results with my reported intake. And sure enough, I’m doing well on my antioxidant intake for vitamins A, C and E. However, I’m shortchanging my consumption of cruciferous vegetables and allium vegetables (all the onions: including leeks, scallions, shallots, garlic).

Without remembering what I reported, I feel as though the only way I could increase my intake of alliums is to start putting garlic in my cereal. I have never in my life walked away from a piece of garlic or onion – I put it on my pizza, in virtually every meat I eat and even buy onion/garlic crackers and dips – what’s a gal to do?

Start including caramelized onions as a side dish a couple of times a week is one way to go. The suggestion is to eat half a cup of allium every day. The good news is that I can spread it out over the week, so if I eat a cup of garlic today and want to have a romantic evening tomorrow with someone less fond of garlic than me, I can. Phew.

So, next time, I’ll tackle the more sensitive results – insulin sensitivity – sensitive because it does tie in to my weight.

Questions:

Do you consume as many antioxidants as “they” recommend? Are you aware of recommendations?

What are your favorites?

Any tricks to incorporating more into your diet?

And the results are in

Well, it’s here. It’s a nice little book, separated into sections. There’s way too much to process here in one write-up so I’m going to do this in pieces.

I’ll start with a confession. I skipped right over the introduction, which looked like a lot of blah, blah, blah about the approach, the system and a context for the results, (I’ll get back to that later), and jumped to my test results. Wouldn’t you?

What you see first: There is a chart which puts “Optimal Health” in the top right corner, and “Action Required” (nice euphemism, by the way), in the bottom left corner, and five different areas of interest are graphed against that. The five areas are: Bone Health, Detoxification, Heart Health, Inflammation, and Insulin Sensitivity.

Continue Reading…