Glucose loading cures everything?
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Dr. Stephens in an email exchange with me: "You will be so excited with the outcome of this."
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Same. This dextrose protocol is like nothing I’ve tried before. So much different than high sucrose and general high carb eating.
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@yerrag said in Glucose loading cures everything?:
OTOH, being low on blood sugar leads one to be unable to sleep, leads to high stress hormone levels, fainting, lowered immunity, and to becoming sensitive to respiratory allergies and to being vulnerable to infections leading to fever and flu.
By this I must have been having functionally low glucose throughout the miserable half of my life.
Generally irrespective of whether my fasting BG was a mere 60 or a borderline-high 99 mg/mL. -
The funny and cruel thing is that we are always concerned with high blood sugar, and we never hear a pipsqueak about low blood sugar.
Just as we hear of high cholesterol and worry about it, and never hear talk of the danger of low cholesterol.
Same of high blood pressure and low blood pressure.
As well as high temperature and low temperature.
How we are programmed to be blind to what really presents to be more of a danger, and spend our time worrying about what's less worrisome.
I'm glad we don't perceive friend to be enemies, and enemies to be our friends.
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@yerrag said in Glucose loading cures everything?:
I'm glad we don't perceive friend to be enemies, and enemies to be our friends.
This looks to be a normative statement? As opposed to a positive, factual statement of the predominant opposite.
In a few consecutive mornings I noticed my pulse remained elevated for longer than half an hour after my first dextrose serving.
I speculated that this may be due to me immediately soaking up all the dextrose after having used up all my glycogen stores over the long stretch of time overnight. And I wondered whether increasing my (morning) serving size could alleviate this.It seems it indeed does so.
These mere 6-14gr more dextrose per serving, however, have reintroduced the sleepiness I had been having before especially during the first two-three days of dextrosing.
As someone wrote in another thread: I have no idea whether this would be related to brain healing. -
It's a lot easier if you have BG data with you. I would get a glucometer and start measuring my BG in 15 minute intervals from zero to say 3 hours. This means about 12 or 13 needle punctures into your fingers which is not painful.
Then you can see how high your BG goes before it comes down, and how fast it comes down, and how low it goes before it begins to go up.
I have a glucometer to do my own 5 hr oral glucose tolerance test from time to time and I learn a lot about how my body handles and regulates blood sugar this way.
If you've never used a glucometer, .you may be turned off by having so many pinpricks done. But if you've had at least one done, you know it's not painful.
OTOH, I think having a CGM device is a bit much. You can get enough useful data from a glucometer without having to have a CGM attached to you all the time.
With the BG data presented in an x vs y graph, x being BG and y being time, you can easily visualize and determine what is going on with how your BG fluctuates after an intake of dextrose. It would vary from person to person, which is why it is very helpful as it gives you your context, and that matters a lot.
If I have blood sugar problems, I would do this. But then, I don't have BG issues. But still, I use my own 5 hr glucose tolerance test for improving my blood sugar regulation.
5 yes ago my fasting BS was s very nice 84. Now, it' at 95, which many would still envy but it shows my blood sugar regulation has worsened.
Having a 5hr OGTT chart would help identify where the problem is that I need to work on.
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Thanks for your thoughts. I won't do that glucose monitoring, though, because the significance and meaning of any measurements would need to be allocated to individual reactions, feelings, situations and all their changes over time.
It would vary from person to person, which is why it is very helpful as it gives you your context, and that matters a lot.
Exactly! So that would be a lot of individual empirics and may or may not show anything helpful. I can see the "academic" appeal of documenting and analysing this for oneself. I would even be curious about the diagrams of others who are going for the dextrose. E.g. if you were to start dextrose and continue your previous BG testings that would be even more revealing with regard to the changes and altered response curves.
For myself, however, I consider it too much effort which I would expect to be more sensible if along with glucose there could also be fully quantitative quick-testing of cortisol and adrenaline levels to match up with and complement the picture of why the BG is at its level at any given time.
Also, indeed I really hate those pinpricks.Over at the RPF some peeps are backpedalling about dextrose in rather weakish and discombobulated ways. I would bet on that they are not getting their corequirements for electrolytes and B vitamins right, which some others are now starting to tentativily give considerations to. I hope they'll follow up on these and report what can be useful for my course.
After my increased dextrose serving sizes three days ago I am today having watery diarrhea again. I surely believe they are causally connected. And hopefully again transient.
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I think it's mostly because you are afraid of pinpricks. Getting BG data is one set of useful data more than you currently have. I have used that data alone without needing more and it has made me able to improve my blood sugar regulation thru analyzing and identifying where my blood sugar issues are coming from. Whether it is from poor absorption of glucose at the outset by seeing a very high initial buildup or spike of BG, or whether it is by the large and steep drop in BG that goes into BG low territory, which could indicate a lack of glycogen stores if not a blunted adrenaline response.
But most Americans are wimps given the way they are raised with most if not all dental clinics needing to heavily sedate patients undergoing extraction and not able to stand the simple sight of a large needle. Or in undergoing a minor surgery that would need only local anaesthesia, with the patient unable to bear being conscious, would prefer general anaesthesia.
But thanks for admitting so, as I've wondered why all of RPF, heavily Americans, acting in a psychologically tribal way, are resistant to undergo the pinpricking involved in a a 5hr OGTT, and prefer to use the useless HbA1c test, which Peat himself has rightfully criticized as POS (my paraphrase). Trained methods are hard to unlearn even when shown to be wrong, as if there is a hive mind at work, even in a forum that aims to be bioenergetically strong, operating on autopilot.
Temporal thinking is the faculty that’s
engaged by an enriched environment, but it’s
wrong to call it “thinking,” because it’s simply
the way organisms exist... - Ray Peat Nov 2017 Newsletter -
I have listened to the whole first talk which was linked in this thread and I am not impressed. He did not really address the difference between taking pure glucose and consuming starchy / sweet foods except of saying "the brain has turned down the valve" due to "glucose limiting injuries", whatever that is supposed to mean. But somehow pure glucose is avoiding this "turning down of the valve".
I think the results he gets with his patients are a mixture of providing glucose which is easily assimilated and a placebo effect. Drinking a coke is probably just as effective as swallowing 10 dextrose tablets. -
@Atman We've been drinking Mexicola for years. We've been doing the dextrose powder for 2-3 weeks. There is a HUGE difference between the two. I told my husband we need to start calling dextrose "magic powder."
If you understand that you will likely do some serious retracing on dextrose you will be more inclined to persevere when it gets bumpy. Dr. Stephens told me it will likely get a bit rough as healing occurs.
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@Atman said in Glucose loading cures everything?:
Drinking a coke is probably just as effective as swallowing 10 dextrose tablets.
Some of you guys keep saying this. People experimenting with dextrose will tell you it’s much different from sucrose and starches.
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@Atman said in Glucose loading cures everything?:
I have listened to the whole first talk which was linked in this thread and I am not impressed.
If you can Atman, do it again and in context. Attach a ultra wide angle lens and use an ultra low shutter speed. Maybe there's something happening here. Maybe something is different about them. It could be nothing, or it could be profound.
https://youtu.be/AiyoNM7OT7Y?si=-vBclIdhTCsDNvbP - November 2019
https://youtu.be/J7sG-ePM6Hw?si=3VuouVdJaAO3gZDo - June 2024Pay attention and you'll see he's less animated. He's aging. Faster than he ought to in my opinion. Maybe something happened to him. Maybe the mud we've all been dragged through had something to do with it. And maybe something more personal prior that made him think about this in the first place.
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Is there expected weight gain due to high dextrose consumption?
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@tubert Some gain weight and some don't. I read that if people cut back on other carb sources they will be less likely to. Dr. Stephens said of his patients who gained weight over the 4 to 6 month period, they were able to lose it after. (No details were offered about how they lost the weight. I assume they felt better so were more motivated to move.)
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I may go on a glucose and brewers yeast diet for a while... maybe eat one meal a day..
and see what happens. I'll take supplements for micronutrients that are missing (like B12). -
I've been following this thread and several on RPF on this topic.
On RPF, there have been a couple recent negative experiences and one or two people have stopped the protocol. But there have been a lot of positive reports too and generally a lot of optimism around and embracing of the protocol.
It seems here there is largely an openness, despite reasonable skepticism and questioning of how it would work and why it would be better than loading up on starch or white sugar loading.
I have been doing something close to the protocol for 2-3 weeks now; nothing major to report good or bad.
Does anyone here have a good summary of benefits / drawbacks you've felt from the protocol? I know several are doing it (@S-Holmes @evan-hinkle @CrumblingCookie @Jaffe @happyhanneke @Ben, maybe others )
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Peer-reviewed research on mechanisms related to glucose fueling of the brain and glucose restoration in the brain. Glucose restoration results in human restoration.
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I think we realy just need to wait a few months because by then most who embarked on this can/will report a proper idea of what this whole thing is and wether the promises work or not and wether this is realy harmful. Should i not have diabetes by the 6 month mark then i will never let anyone induce fear of sugar to me again. People also need to understand this is a treatment over a certain time not a lifestyle.
So far for me the positives:
- energy feeling (brain) is high most of the time which is so much lifequality
- no brainfog
- chronic anxiety feeling is alot lower than what is usually baseline
- sensitivity in all regards is way lower and things feel way less troublesome/problematic in general
- a sense of hope/wellbeing that things can and will change for the better
-maybe tmi but libido and erection quality is realy great atm
the negatives:
-occasional tiredness or nausea, usually very shortlived (lasting a few mins after ingestion ,seems dose dependend)the not sure what to make of it or if related:
- getting realy hangry 2-3 times a week
- my hair is thinning more than usual the past days
- body hair growing more
- nails growing faster
- digestion is a little worse now instead of better as it was initially on the protocol
- sleeping less due to having to much energy at bed time but sleep itself is still good (have to set a time when to lie down )
- either a little weight gain or more water retention around the midsection
the dissapointing thus far:
- no reduction in percieved ailments (tinnitus, chronic inflammation, sense of selfworth etc.) yet
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@Ben Thank you for the comprehensive response. And I do agree, time will tell for this. And like you mention, it is good to keep in mind that even in Stephens' protocol, it is a temporary (6-month) treatment, not a new lifestyle.
Here's to continued energy and life quality and hopefully reduced negatives.
Very interesting that your hair up top is thinning more but your body hair and nails are growing more.
I hope your ailments do resolve!
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I'm doing this for 8 days now. Still on the 24 gram 4X a day.
I'm getting nervous though because I definitely am gaining weight (or getting bloated).
Very frustrating.Cannot say that I feel anything else that's different. I don't feel worse either.
Not sure what to make of it. I get fat from everything, dhea, progest-e, pregnenolone.
