CGM FTW?
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Alright, update time!
Charcoal is very interesting. I have found that it can both raise and lower my readings. My working theory is that endotoxin accumulates throughout the day, (and I’ve noticed that charcoal lowers my blood sugar at night). But perhaps in the morning, charcoal acts as more of an antibiotic substance, and raises blood sugar because of endotoxin from bacterial die-off?
Glycine! Holy cow has glycine been interesting. It seems to have permanently corrected my somewhat sluggish bowels. It’s making my skin smoother, and warming my body like I’d expect thyroid to do. I’m getting temps at 99 most of the day. I’m taking glycine because I read that it could lower blood sugar, and not only does it do that reliably, but it has a host of other positive effects. Typically if I drink water I get a blood glucose spike, (I assume because it’s raising cortisol and I’m getting a response to get catabolic). I can now drink water by simply adding 1 Tsp of glycine to it, (no spike at all). 1 Tsp of glycine has had a profound effect on my blood glucose readings.
I’ve lost some weight, (without touching calories). Just keeping my blood sugar between 70-140 has dropped 5lbs, but more importantly, my clothes seem to fit better than simply 5lbs lost, suggesting re-comp?
The CGM continues to impress. I highly recommend giving it a try!
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@evan-hinkle Very interesting thread. First time I've heard of drinking water raising cortisol or blood glucose. Do you have any more info about that?
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@Insr I think Peat mentioned that drinking too much water would raise cortisol. I don’t have direct proof that this is what is happening to me, but given that stress raises cortisol, (which then raises blood glucose one way or another) I’m just hypothesizing this for me personally.
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Glycine continues to impress. I ran out of it for a day and slow transit time seemed to creep in some. I received my next batch of glycine, and the next morning everything was back to perfect again!
My blood glucose readings continue to improve. My average blood glucose reading continues to drop. It was in the 1teens, (113-120) now it’s 103, (over the past week while I’ve been using glycine). Fasting number has dropped from 95-100, to 85-88. In addition to the drops in average numbers, the band is narrowing as well. My spikes over 140 are almost non-existent, (one or two per week, (and they’re on terrible splurges, like cookies, (homemade-but cookies nonetheless)). My average baseline 2 hours post meal has also dropped from 100ish to high 80s.
One other interesting observation, when I work too hard without food, I get a slow rise in blood sugar that is typically accompanied with a spike over 140 at my next meal. I’m a woodworker and sometimes I will get in a groove in the shop and push lunch back and hour or two. Seems like this is a bad idea. I assume cortisol is kicking in to elevate blood sugar and then eating spikes the already high blood sugar. I’ve found that sipping something, (not chugging) works well to keep this in check. I’ve tried Gatorade, dextrose sweetened milk, and dextrose sweetened water. Seems like they all work equally well.
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Just giving another update. Something somewhat incredible has happened: I re-comped! I didn’t do anything to re-comp, but it happened anyway. I haven’t used the CGM in weeks because I found that aspirin at night, and glycine with meals kept my blood sugar just about perfect, (95-120 all day). I’ve been carrying on with this without thinking about it, (aspirin has so many other benefits that I’d take it anyway, and a tsp of glycine added to meals is very simple for the perfect blood sugar).
I had been weighing myself weekly, (trying to loose a little weight-though I know how “stupid” that is really since the number is irrelevant) but i got out of the habit. So a week or so ago i weighed myself and to my surprise the number was exactly the same, (no weight lost). This was really nuts because i had lost two pants sizes… i went from a 34 to a 32 in waist! I gave my body a good look over and sure enough, i looked pretty good. Chest filled out, arms thick, waist slimmer.
I don’t know if it was the glycine specifically, or the fact that I’ve “corrected” my blood sugar, but i re-comped without a deficit, and the number on the scale was exactly the same!
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how much total glycine do you take in a day from the supplement now?
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@sunsunsun I went nuts one day and tried 60 grams based on mitochondrial age reversal in some studies on the old forum, (didn’t notice anything wild) but NORMALLY, I take 3-5 tsp. A tsp is about 3 grams if I remember correctly, so 9-15 grams of glycine.
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@evan.hinkle thx mr hinkle
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Another update, this one’s pretty interesting… I’m still plugging away with glycine, (1 tsp at each meal) and it’s been the holidays, so I’ve had some beer and some bourbon, (some PUFA or otherwise “unhealthy” choices here or there,(nuts, salad, things that other people would consider healthy ironically…)). I decided to do a finger prick the other day and an hour after coffee on an empty stomach, and landed a 94! This is kinda amazing. Glycine has essentially perfected my blood sugar!
Two other interesting notes: one, I’m up four pounds in weight, but have dropped from 34-32” waist. Two, I’ve weight trained since a teen, (in my mid forties now) but took a year or so off when I couldn’t figure out how to train without a stress response. I’ve been back training regularly 4 days a week for a few months now, and have struggled with 230lbs on the bench press, and anything over 100 standing shoulder press. This week I benched 250, and shoulder pressed 130! Not Olympian numbers, but really amazing considering where I was just a few months ago.
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@evan.hinkle This is quite the success story with glycine. Through out the years I've posted a quote from Peat where he thinks glycine is one of the few isolated amino acids that is okay to supplement with. You mention you're not sure if it's the glycine helping you with weight lighting and physique, but I'd say it is. The package of glycine I have has a large image of a body builder on it. I didn't buy it for that, but no doubt it's marketed to body builders.
You're quite fortunate you can take glycine without side effects. It makes many tired and sedated — myself included. Do you not get any of these sedating effects from it?
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@Mossy I used to get sedated taking it on my own and in tablespoon quantities, but I now only consume it alongside food/(or milk or some other caloric drink) and only a tsp at a time. It doesn’t sedate me this way. With food, I literally just sprinkle it on top, (adds a little sweetness and not much flavor really).
There’s also the possibility that it lowers stress hormones and perhaps over time I’ve lowered my stress and increased my energy such that it no longer has such an effect. Either way, try tsp vs tblspn and with food vs simply water if you haven’t already.
