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Post #65 – Fasting, the old new technology and panacea for Optimal Health – Part III

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Autophagy, Fasting, Ideal Body Weight, Lean Mass, Living to 120, Optimal Health, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Uncategorized, wellness

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In the Posts #63 and #64, I described that all fasting methods consist of some variations of these variables:

  1. What you eat or not eat,
  2. How much you eat or not eat,
  3. When you eat or not eat, and
  4. How frequently you repeat the process.

And, with these variables you can make all kinds of combinations. For example, you may have seen or heard of the following popular combinations:

  1. Water only Fast for, say, 1, 3, or 5 consecutive days; alternate day fasting; 5:2 fasting: fasting for 2 days and eating the other 5 days of the week.
  2. Calories Restricted Diet: 20% fewer calories per day, e.g., 1,600 calories per day when 2,000 is your regular intake
  3. Time-Restricted Feeding: 8:16 fasting: eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 hours; 4:20 fasting, where you eat for 4 hours and fast for 20, etc.
  4. Fasting-Mimicking Diet: During fasting, you still eat but with certain restrictions on carbs and protein, so your body feels as if you are fasting.

So, what option is optimal for you or me, depends on a variety of variables including: state of your health, state of your fitness, your goals, your ability to follow the process in the short term or long term, any medicines you are taking, age, BMI.

There are a couple of important principles to remember while fasting.

Our bodies have Multiple Energy Sources: a) immediate energy from the food we eat, b) Glycogen stored in liver, and c) fat stored in the body, and d) lean body mass, and e) cellular debris. In different situations, body dips into appropriate energy source.

Chronobiology or body’s circadian clock dictates metabolism. For most people, metabolism is higher in the morning until early afternoon. So, it is better to eat heavier meals in at breakfast or lunch then at dinner.

The benefits of long-term fasting are numerous, seems almost too good to be true. But all theses have been demonstrated in research and personally I have experienced these:

  1. Lose weight
  2. Lose body fat, especially visceral fast, while retaining lean body mass
  3. Reverse diabetes, hypertension, lower LDL and many other health issues
  4. Become appreciative of tastes and smells of food
  5. Start to eat more mindfully
  6. Learn not to panic if food is not immediately available when feeling hungry
  7. Spend less time and money on food
  8. Improved mental and emotional outlook
  9. Increased lifespan and healthspan

Now for what works, what does not and how to make it work for you.

  1. Calorie Restricted Diet is the least effective for major weight loss: An important principle is that 1 pound of body weight does not always equal to 3500 calories. If you have tried to lose weight by counting calories, you know that by eating fewer calories by the same amount, you lose less weight in the second month than the first, and you less weight in the third month than the second and so on.

In fact, per Pennigton Biomedical Research Center Predictor Calculator, if I were to reduce my daily intake by 500 calories and keep it for a year, my weight loss over 12 months would look like the following:

Weight Predictor

As you can see from the chart, it gets harder and harder to lose weight by reducing number of calories and easy to hit a plateau.

  1. Calories restricted diet, however, does seem to offer benefits of both health span and lifespan 
  1. All other types for fasting are effective in weight loss and other benefits. What will work for you, depends upon your tolerance. 
  1. A good strategy often is to start with Time Restricted Feeding, work up to one or more days of water fasting or Fasting Mimicking Diets (FMD).

My wife Kimberly and I started with becoming conscious of how many hours we did not eat every day. And, then we tried to stretch that period to at least 12 hours every day and longer when possible. 

Next, we started with water only fasting for one day a week. For us, from Friday after dinner to Saturday dinner worked.

We did one-day-a-week water only fasts for about 4 to 5 weeks. We were working ourselves up to a 3-day and then a 5-day water only fast, but then we came across fasting mimicking diet programs. One such program is in the book: Grow a New Body, by Dr. Albert Villoldo.

Grow a new body

So, we moved to 5-day programs of fasting mimicking diet. We are doing the ProLon protocol that consists of prepackage food and supplements developed at the University of Southern California by Valter Longo and explained in his book, The Longevity Diet . We like the results.

The longevity Diet

Fasting does have side-effects that include headache, lethargy and low energy. But these tend to resolve themselves.  Drinking lots of water and staying hydrated really helps. On a longer fast, first day tends to be the most difficult.

And, finally, fasting is not recommended in the following situations,. It is best to check with your doctor and work under doctor’s supervision while fasting:

  1. For pregnant and lactating women or children
  2. If you are on any medications, especially for diabetes and hypertension
  3. If you are underweight
  4. If you are over 70 years old

Summary

  1. There are many benefits of fasting, from more mindful eating to reversing diseases and living longer.
  2. Several variables make up a fasting protocol: what, how, when and how frequently you eat or not eat.
  3. There are many types of fasting: water only fasts, calories restricted diet, time-restricted feeding, and fasting-mimicking diet. What is optimal for you depends on a number of factors related to your health, fitness, and goals.
  4. Three general principles that you can use as guide to choose a protocol that may best suit you are: multiple sources of energy, autophagy and chronobiology.
  5. Calories restricted diet is not the best for weight loss for long terms. However, you do get benefits of healthier and longer life
  6. You can start with time-restricted feeding, extend periods of not eating and then work up to multi-day fasting.
  7. Fasting mimicking diets are great ways to have the benefits of longer fasting.
  8. If you have any medical issues, fast only under the care of a medical doctor.

What do you think?

Have you an experience with fasting? What worked or not worked for you? What benefits or difficulties you faced while fasting?

I and the readers of this blog would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

Post #64 – Fasting, the old new technology and panacea for Optimal Health – Part II

04 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by in Autophagy, Fasting, Lean Mass, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Percent Body Fat, Uncategorized, wellness

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In the last Post #63, I described that:

  1. Lysosomes in our cells collect garbage and covert that for reuse.
  2. Do more of autophagy and body heals itself. Less of autophagy leads to diseases.
  3. Fasting is currently the only way to get the body into autophagy.

Concept of fasting, of course, has been around for thousands of years.

Our hunter gatherer ancestors had to live with unpredictable access to nutrition and routinely experienced periods of fasting and eating. Most religions of the world have some concept of fasting – Lent in Christianity, Ramadan in Islam, ta’anit, taanis or taʿanith in Judaism, a variety of fasting in Hinduism and Buddhism.

However, science of fasting is relatively new, though it is  a popular subject for research these days. I just did a quick search on the word “fasting” on the National Library of Medicine PubMed site and it produced 3,392 citations.

Michael Greger, M.D., who publishes his research summaries on the website NutritionFact.org, recently read and has summarized 1,250 of these papers. I attended the first half of his summaries in a 3-hour webinar last week.

Since weight loss is a major topic of interest around the world, a lot of research has focused on fasting for weight loss and its impact on popular bio-markers such as cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure. There is some research also available on the impact of fasting on longevity., although not as much as for weight loss.

All fasting methods consist of some variations of these variables:

  • What you eat or not eat,
  • How much you eat or not eat,
  • When you eat or not eat, and
  • How frequently you repeat the process.

And, with these variables you can make all kinds of combinations. For example, you may have seen or heard of the following popular combinations:

  1. Water only Fast for, say, 1, 3, or 5 consecutive days; alternate day fasting; 5:2 fasting: fasting for 2 days and eating the other 5 days of the week.
  2. Calories Restricted Diet: 20% fewer calories per day, e.g., 1,600 calories per day when 2,000 is your regular intake
  3. Time-Restricted Feeding: 8:16 fasting: eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 hours; 4:20 fasting, where you eat for 4 hours and fast for 20, etc.
  4. Fasting-Mimicking Diet: During fasting, you still eat but with certain restrictions on carbs and protein, so your body feels as if you are fasting.

So, what option is optimal for you or I? Well, in biology nothing seems that simple. Answer always seems be: It depends.

The answer as to what is best for you or I, depends on a variety of variables including: state of your health, state of your fitness, your goals, your ability to follow the process in the short term or long term, any medicines you are taking, age, BMI.

Here are some principles, I have been able to tease apart from various research summaries, pod-casts of experts and books I have read so far. In human biology, there is always more details. So, these are, of course, simplified versions.

Principle I: Multiple Energy Sources: Our bodies have three main energy sources: a) immediate energy from the food we eat, b) Glycogen stored in liver, and c) fat stored in the body.

On typical days, we are constantly eating multiple meals a day that equal to or exceed the energy requirement of our body. Body simply takes macro and micro nutrient content from the digested food, and stores excess in liver as Glycogen or as fat in fat cells.

If we eat less than what our body needs, body takes excess first from the glycogen store in the liver and converts into glucose for use by the cells.

When glycogen stores are depleted, body starts to convert store fat into energy, through a process called Ketosis and uses Ketones as source of energy.

Which of these stores are being used when, depends on all those variable I mentioned above. For example, when body will start dipping into glycogen store may depend upon how big the last meal you had and what you ate. Or, your body may go into ketosis relatively quickly if you are athletically trained to burn fat as fuel like distance runners.

Principle II: Autophagy: At some point after body is in ketosis, autophagy turns on more and more vigorously. In fact, different tissues in the body up-regulate autophagy at different times. In autophagy, the lysosomes start to convert garbage insides the cells, e.g., broken DNA strands, ill formed organelles, into sources of energy.

Body is always in autophagy at some level. Fasting just kicks it into higher gears. How long before autophagy goes into higher gears? You guessed it: it depends. Since autophagy happens insides the cells, it is not easy to measure.

In general, autophagy has been observed after 14 hours in time-restricted regimens. And, it is generally established that after three days of fasting autophagy definitely accelerates.

Principle III: Chronobiology: Body’s circadian clock dictates metabolism. So, metabolism is generally faster during the morning and slower in the evening. Studies have shown that in a 16:8 fasting, with same intake folks who ate between 6am to 2pm lost more weight than those who ate from 2pm to 8pm. Moreover, the bio-markers, e.g., LDL cholesterol, of the second group were worse than the first group.

So, the wisdom of eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper holds.

Not to leave you hanging, but it does looks like that it will take at least one more post to share the benefits, downsides and my experiences of fasting so far.

Summary

  1. Several variables make up a fasting protocol: what, how, when and how frequently you eat or not eat.
  2. There are many types of fasting: water only fasts, calories restricted diet, time-restricted feeding, and fasting-mimicking diet. What is optimal for you depends on a number of factors related to your health, fitness, and goals.
  3. Three general principles that you can use as guide to choose a protocol that may best suit you are: multiple sources of energy, autophagy and chronology.

What do you think?

Have you an experience with fasting? Have you learned about autophagy?

I and the readers of this blog would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

Post #41 – So, how to measure how close to optimal is your health? Or, how quickly are you aging?

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Aging, Dying, Life-Span, Living to 120, Mental Health, Nutrition, Optimal Exercise, Puposely Living, Vitality, wellness

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“How old are you?” someone asks. Number of years since birth is the generally the answer – that is your Chronological Age or CA.

But how hold do you feel? How old do you act? How old do you look? That is your Biological Age or BA.

Wouldn’t it be nice to actually be able to measure your biological age?

CA and BA is the difference between being 40 year old and going on 60. Or, may be being 60 year old and going on 40.

Wouldn’t it be more useful to have a single number like BA, than understanding individual factors like your total cholesterol, HDL, A1c, VO2 Max, etc?

Recently, in the media there has been a buzz about a recent research published by scientists led by Duke University School of Medicine about measuring biological age. For example, see the article in WSJ: How Quickly Are You Growing Old?

Now there are a quite a few websites, where you answer a bunch of question and they will tell you, your biological age as compared to your chronological age.

For example, here are three such sites, I tried (my CA is 60.9 years):

http://www.biological-age.com/ calculated my biological age as 36

https://www.sharecare.com told me my BA was 53.6.

http://www.growyouthful.com/gettestinfo.php said my BA was 46.

Each of the sites followed up with advice and helpful hints on what I could start or stop doing to further increase my expected health and lifespan.

Unfortunately, none of these websites show exactly what they do with the information you provide and how they arrive at the number they call Biological Age.

But this recent study, “Quantification of biological aging in young adults”, by Daniel W. Belsky et al, is very rigorous treatment of this subject and gives you all the details behind the curtain. And, for me, these details are not only fascinating but actually quite useful to understand what matters for biological age to start diverging from chronological age. In other words, what slows down or speed up aging.

The study calculated the aging rate of 954 men and women—taking various measurements of their bodies’ health—when they were each 26, 32 and 38 in chronological years. By analyzing how these measures changed over time, the researchers were able to see who aged faster and who slower than normal.

To measure the pace of biological aging, which the study defined as the declining integrity of multiple organ systems, the researchers relied on 18 separate biomarkers, summarized in figure below.

These ranged from common measures such as HDL-cholesterol levels and mean arterial blood pressure to more obscure ones like the length of telomeres—the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that shorten with age.

Go on in Years

Chronological age of all participants was 38 years. However, researchers found that the biological ages varied from 26 years to 60 years.

For measuring how fast people aged, they calculated aging over 12 years. About 30 percent aged biologically one year for every calendar year. There were those who aged as much as 3 years for every calendar year. And, there were four members of the group who aged not at all or actually got biologically younger during the 12 year period.

BOTTOMLINE:

Finding one’s Biological Age is a fascinating concept and can be very useful in optimizing health and life span. However, this is not an exact science just yet, although good strides are being made in research.

However, if you want to focus on living optimally, you can focus on changing your lifestyle to optimize the basic 18 or so biomarkers used in this study. Most of these can be impacted by lifestyle choices. Only 20% depend upon genetics.

Proper food, hydration, exercise, supplements and medical care are the key methods to managing these primary biomarkers.

Websites that compute biological ages also suggest additional actionable items that seem to strongly correlate to optimal health span and life span. These include:

  1. Optimal sleep (7 to 9 hours)
  2. Reduced stress (meditation, perspective management)
  3. Reduced exposure to toxins (organic food, reduced use of chemicals, clean water)
  4. Increased social contact (having friends, family, living with a life partner)
  5. Purposeful living (satisfying work, hobbies, social endeavors)

What is your take on this subject?

Please feel free to leave comment to share your perspective.

Post #37 – When the doctor says “Everything is normal”, what does it mean?

12 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Functional Medicine, Optimal Health

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The following paragraph is from a handout I saw in the office of Ben Gonzales, M.D.:

“Everything is Normal” … said the doctor to you. You went to your doctor because you haven’t been feeling yourself in a while. Something is not quite right. You feel a bit “off” but can’t quite put your finger on it. You may be gaining weight despite working out and eating right, your energy levels have been dropping, sex drive is decreasing or you simply are losing your ability to focus. Yes, you have the usual and may be unusual stresses at home, job, financially, relationships perhaps. Your sleep patterns are changing and you do not know why. The doctor did an exam, got some basic labs and tells you, “Everything is normal” But you don’t feel normal. What is “normal” when it comes to labs? Why is it that results vary in “normal ranges” from lab to lab?

Or, maybe it is the opposite scenario, as described below an excerpt from Labs Online website:

“Your test was out of the normal range,” your doctor says to you, handing you a sheet of paper with a set of test results, numbers on a page. Your heart starts to race in fear that you are really sick. But what does this statement mean, “Out of the normal range”? Is it cause for concern?

Doctors may use the words “normal” informally, but labs these days more often than not use the word reference range.

For example, blood work for Cholesterol may look like this:

(If the figure is legible, just click on it)

Figure

In this above example, Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL, VLDL are all within their corresponding Reference Ranges. While LDL Cholesterol, which is a calculated value from other measurements is outside the range, marked here with bold font and also with letter H (for High) in the next to the reference range.

First of all, where do these Normal or Reference Ranges come from and what does it mean to be within the range or outside the range – doctors and you may refer to as Normal or Not-Normal after a quick review of the lab results?

For some tests, guidance may come from National Institute of Health (NIH) or some expert panel of the corresponding physician’s association. For example, in the case of Cholesterol, the reference range is taken from the NIH Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute publication called Third Report of the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults, or Adult Test Panel III or ATP III. NIH has developed this publication by organizing expert panels of medical professionals and researcher to review all the literature and then develop recommendations.

For some other tests, ranges are derived by collecting data for a large enough group of people and then performing some statistical analysis to derive what is “normal” for them

The first step in determining a given reference range is usually to define the population to which the reference range will apply, for example, healthy females between 20 and 30 years old. A large enough number of individuals from this category are tested for a specific laboratory test. The results are then averaged and a range (plus or minus 2 standard deviations of the average) of normal values is established.

And that becomes the reference range, based on which, you may be told “Everything is normal” or the opposite of it.

So, given this background, what should you be watching out for or questioning in this process? Here are some questions to ask, that may lead you to dig further into your labs:

  1. Does the lab data correspond to how I feel?
  2. Do I belong to the category from which the reference range was derived?
  3. What is the optimal range, not just normal range?

There is an intriguing story of a woman who during her pregnancy felt awful but her doctor kept telling her that everything was normal and she even had a miscarriage. She eventually figured out that she was suffering from Hypothyroid and found the right doctor to work with, thus totally transforming her life. She became a crusader in educating women on this thyroid issue and launched HypothyroidMom website.

Then there is even a bigger question: Are the lab tests that are being used for screening issues the right tests?

Dr. Gonzalez in his flier concludes:

“Many basic labs are left out in an initial general physical workup. Understanding what labs to obtain in evaluating your physiologic function is not a basic skill seen in many primary care clinics. Again, simply because most clinics are looking for disease results in your labs, not optimal results as they relate to your long term good health. This is an issue in our current health care system. Finding a provider who understands optimal ranges in your labs and how nutrition fits into managing your health can be challenging. Seek that provider.

Because everything may not be “normal”.”

In my next post I will share some more information about what are some overlooked labs that your primary physician may be reluctant to order but are these days considered vital for managing optimal health.

So, what are your experience on this subject.

I would love to hear and learn.

Post #31 – What supplements to take for Optimal Health?

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Supplements

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On June 8, 2014, I wrote a blog post #15, “Is taking multivitamin and supplements helpful, harmless or harmful?” There I described my thinking on this subject and what I was taking at that time as supplements. Back then I was taking supplement in 29 pills. These days, it is up to 42 pills! So, to anyone watching, it must feel a little more than crazy.

Over the holidays, when family and friends saw me take all those supplement pills, I kept getting these questions:

“What are all these pills you are taking?”

Do you need all these supplements?

Is it even safe to take all these on a daily basis?

Finally, I pulled out my bag of supplements and gave them the full tour. I particularly wanted to hear my niece’s opinion, who is a cardiologist, to understand if I was doing anything wrong.

So, I thought this was a good topic to revisit.

Here is what I am taking these days and why, and a little background how I got there. The following chart summarizes the supplements, their brand names and generally what there are for.

No. Vendor Name Description # Pills per Day
1.

 

 Xtendlife Total Balance Men’s Premium Daily multivitamins, minerals. It also have many other items generally considered beneficial 7
2. Xtendlife Omega 3/ QH Ultra Fish Oil, Omega 6, Omega 9, Ubiqunol 4
3. Nature’s Bounty Flaxseed Oil 1200 mg each Flaxseed Oil 2
4. Nature’s Bounty D3-2000 2000 mg each Vitamin D3 2
5. LifeExtension Glucosamine / Chondroitin Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate – for joint health 2
6. NOW Calcium Citrate

250 mg calcium each

 Along with Vitamin D, Manganese, Zinc, Copper and Magnesium required for absorption – for bone health 2
7. Nature’s Plus Red Rice Yeast

600 mg each

 To manage cholesterol 2
8. Xtendlife Male Rejuvinator For prostate health 6
9. Life Extension Super Miaforte For Low T 4
10. RAW Probiotics Ultimate Care-100 Billion Garden of Life 34 different strains of bacteria 1
11. VitaminShoppe B-Complex 50 All B Vitamins – recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
12. Life Extension Optimized Folate

L-Methylfolate 1000 mg

 Metabolically active form of folic acid -– recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
13. MethylCobamin Vitamin B-12 1mg Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
14. SOLGRID Chelated Molybdenum Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
15. VitaminShoppe Alpha Lipoic Acid 100 mg Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
16. KAL Magnesium 400mg each Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
17. VitaminShoppe CoQ-10

200 mg

 Additional amount for allergies and liver support 1
18. VitaminShoppe NAC N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine 600mg For hay fever/ rag weed allergies and liver support 2
19. VitaminShoppe Milk Thistle extract 300mg For hay fever/ rag weed allergies and liver support 1

Here is the story of how I got to my current 42 pills a day regime.

I started with the daily multivitamin.

That is the most basic. I know that many people, including some of the physicians I have had, believe that it is best to get the basic vitamins and minerals “in a natural way”. I guess that means from what we eat or drink. But doing the research on this topic I have decided that there isn’t much “natural” about our lifestyle.

Eating foods that include pizzas, fried ice creams, drinking caramel macchiatos, going through eating and dieting binges, living in temperature controlled houses and offices, using gadgets and gizmos for everything, rushing to doctors for prescription for every symptom, I am not sure what it really means to get nutrients that body needs in a “natural way”. And, with all the technology that we use to grow our food these days, even fruits and vegetable can hardly be called “natural”.

Any doctor will tell you, yes if you are deficit in any of the basic vitamins and minerals, you can develop health issues. The way I look at it, why would I want to chance having deficit of any of these essential items? So, as far as I am concerned, daily dose of all essential vitamins and minerals is a must.

My search for the best multivitamin in the marketplace led me to Xtendlife. And, as you can see in this table below, their super-duper multivitamin product is Total Balance Men’s Premium – which includes lots of other well-known herbs and molecules in additional to the essential vitamins and minerals. So, that is what I have been taking. In the table, each underscored item is a hyperlink to the detail about that item on Xtendlife’s website. In many cases, hyperlink shows the literature they have used to determine the daily optimal dose, which in some cases you will notice is much more than 100% for USDA recommended daily allowance (RDA).

Supplement Facts (Total Balance Men’s Premium multivitamin) Serving size: 7 Tablets Servings per container: 15
Amount Per Serving % Daily Value*
Calories 25
     Calories from fat 5
Vitamin A 5000 IU 100%
(from Natural mixed carotenoids)
Vitamin C 285 mg 480%
(from 180 mg of Calcium ascorbate, 200 mg of Potassium ascorbate and 40 mg of  Ascorbyl palmitate)
Vitamin D3 500 IU 130%
(as Cholecalciferol)
Vitamin E 100 IU 330%
(as D-Alpha tocopheryl succinate from vegetable and soy bean oils 1 mg = 1.21 IU)
Vitamin K2 180 mcg 230%
(as Menaquinone)
Thiamin 10 mg 670%
(from 14 mg of Thiamin hydrochloride)
Riboflavin 10 mg 590%
(from 21 mg of Riboflavin-5-phosphate)
Niacin 27 mg 140%
(from 15 mg of Nicotinic acid, 15 mg of Niacinamide and 0.97 mg Chromium nicotinate)
Vitamin B6  8mg 400%
(from 12 mg of Pyridoxal-5-phosphate)
Folic Acid 300 mcg 80%
Vitamin B12  25 mcg 420%
(as Cobamamide)
Biotin 400 mcg 130%
Pantothenic acid 41 mg 410%
(from 48 mg Calcium pantothenate)
Calcium 50 mg 6%
(from 90 mg of Dicalcium phosphate, 180 mg of Calcium ascorbate, 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate and 48 mg of Calcium pantothenate)
Phosphorus 28 mg 4%
(from 90 mg of Dicalcium phosphate, 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate, 21 mg of  Riboflavin- 5-phosphate and 12 mg of Pyridoxal- 5-phosphate)
Iodine 150 mcg 100%
(from 197 mcg Potassium iodide)
Magnesium 67 mg 20%
(from 200 mg of Magnesium citrate, 102 mg of Magnesium stearate and 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate)
Zinc 19 mg 130%
(from 33 mg of Zinc acetate dihydrate and 31 mg of Zinc citrate)
Selenium 100 mcg 140%
(from 250 mcg of L-selenomethionine)
Copper 0.2 mg 10%
(from 1.43 mg of Copper gluconate)
Manganese 2 mg 100%
(from 8 mg of Manganese citrate)
Chromium 106 mcg 90%
(from 970 mcg of Chromium nicotinate)
Molybdenum 64 mcg 90%
(from 163 mcg of Sodium molybdate)
Potassium 74 mg 2%
(from 200 mg of Potassium ascorbate, 100 mg of Tripotassium citrate and 0.197 mg of Potassium iodide)
RNA 150 mg **
(Ribonucleic acid, from yeast)
Green tea extract 100 mg **
(from Camellia sinensis, leaf)
(providing 80 mg of catechins)
Milk thistle extract  100 mg **
(from Silybum marianum, seed)
(providing 80 mg of silymarins)
Soy lecithin 100 mg **
(a source of Phosphatidyl choline)
Betain HCL 99 mg **
MSM 99 mg **
(Methylsulfonyl methane)
Choline bitartrate 93 mg **
DMG HCL 90 mg **
N-acetyl glucosamine  79 mg **
(from Crustacean shells)
Hesperidin 78 mg **
(from Citrus aurantium (Bitter orange) fruit)
N-acetyl L-cysteine 74 mg **
Horsetail extract 60 mg **
(from Equisetum arvense, stem & leaf)
Inositol 59 mg **
(from 50 mg of Inositol and 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate)
SAMe 51 mg **
(from 98 mg S-adenosylmethionine tosylate)
Alpha lipoic acid 50 mg **
Bacopa extract 50 mg **
(from Bacopa monnieri, leaf)
(providing 15 mg of bacosides)
Black cumin extract  50 mg **
(from Nigella sativa, seed)
(equivalent to 190 mg of Black cumin seeds)
Ginger extract 50 mg **
(from Zingiber officinale, root)
(providing 2.5mg of gingerols)
Ginkgo extract 50 mg **
(from Ginkgo Biloba,leaf)
(providing 12.5 mg of ginkgo flavonoglycosides and 3 mg of terpene lactones)
Guggul gum extract 50 mg **
(from Commiphora mukul, gum exudate)
(providing 1.25 mg of guggulsterones)
PABA 50 mg **
(p-Aminobenzoic acid)
Pine bark extract  50 mg **
(from Pinus massoniana, bark)
Turmeric extract 50 mg **
(from Curcuma longa, root)
(providing 47.5 mg of curcuminoids)
5-Hydroxytryptophan  49 mg **
(from Griffonia simplicifolia, seed)
Myricetin 49 mg **
(from 70 mg of Myrica cerifera (Bayberry), leaf)
Grape seed extract  30 mg **
(from Vitis vinifera, species)
(providing at least 450 mg/g phenolics)
Mineral sea salts 30 mg **
(providing trace elements including strontium, tungsten and rubidium)
Piperine 28 mg **
(from 30 mg of Piper nigrum extract (Black pepper), fruit extract)
Trans-resveratrol 25 mg **
(from 50 mg of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), root)
Isoflavones 20 mg **
(from 50 mg of Soybean extract)
Coenzyme Q-10  19 mg **
Luteolin 18 mg **
(from Arachis hypogaea (Peanut), shell)
Alfalfa extract  10 mg **
(from Medicago sativa, aerial parts)
(equivalent to 110 mg of fresh alfalfa)
Phosphatidyl L-serine  9 mg **
(from 50 mg of Soybean lecithin)
Policosanol 8 mg **
(from 17 mg of Sugar cane extract)
Red clover extract  7 mg **
(from Trifolium pratense, aerial parts)
(providing 2.5 mg of isoflavones)
ATP 5 mg **
(Adenosine triphosphate, from Yeast)
Tocotrienol/tocopherol complex 2 mg **
(from 10 mg of Tocomin® (from Palm tree oil))
Vinpocetine 2 mg **
(from Criocerus longiflorus, whole plant)
Boron 720 mcg **
(from 12 mg of Boron citrate)
Amino Acid Blend
L-lysine HCL 164.00 mg **
L-carnosine 148.50 mg **
L-tyrosine 100.00 mg **
L-arginine HCL 90.00 mg **
L-methionine 89.55 mg **
L-ornithine HCL 50.00 mg **
L-proline 50.00 mg **
L-cysteine 49.75 mg **
L-glutamine 49.75 mg **
L-pyroglutamic acid 49.75 mg **
Taurine 49.25 mg **
(Reduced) L-glutathione 49.00 mg **
Male Health Support Blend
Phytosterols 190 mg **
(from 200 mg Soybean extract)
Saw palmetto extract  160 mg **
(from Serenoa repens fruit)
(providing 40 mg of fatty acids)
Nettle extract 100 mg **
(from Urticae dioica root)
Chrysin 99 mg **
(from Oroxylum indicum bark)
Zinc acetate dihydrate 33 mg **
Lycopene 99 mcg **
(from 15 mg of Tomato extract)
Enzyme Blend
Bromelain 50 mg **
(from Pineapple stem)
Nattozimes® 50 mg **
(Protease from fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae & Aspergillus melleus)
Amylase 30 mg **
(from fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae)
Lipase 20 mg **
(from fermentation of Aspergillus niger)
Immunity Stimulating Blend
Aloe vera  50 mg **
(from Aloe barbadensis leaf juice powder)
(equivalent to 10,000 mg of Aloe leaf juice)
Olive leaf extract  50 mg **
(from Olea europaea, leaf)
(providing 7.5 mg of oleuropein)
Beta glucan 35 mg **
(from yeast)
Tea polysaccharides 12 mg **
(from 50 mg of Camellia sinensis leaf)
Eye Health Blend
Bilberry extract 40 mg **
(from Vaccinum myrtillus fruit)
(providing 10 mg of proanthocyanins and anthocyanins)
Rutin  9 mg **
(from Saphorae japonica bud)
Lutein  2.4 mg **
(from 50 mg of Aztec marigold flower)
Astaxanthin 800 mcg **
(from 40 mg of Haematococcus pluvialis)
Zeaxanthin 475 mcg **
(from 10 mg of Aztec marigold flower)

I had started taking Vitamin D-3, several years ago, when my routine blood work showed deficiency. Statistics show that over 70% of people living in Northern hemisphere are deficient in Vitamin D-3. There are over 500 different genes that Vitamin D can switch on and off. And, every single cell in our body has a receptor for Vitamin D. Looks like a must supplement to me! Two pills a day of Nature’s bounty 2000mg per day is the dose I have chosen.

Next must for me after the multivitamins and Vitamin D is Omega 3. I have been taking both based on Fish Oil and Flax Seed Oil. Again, I found Xtendlife Omega 3 as the best product in the market. I have chosen to take to their super-duper product, Ultra QH, which in additional to Omega 3, contains Omega 6, Omega 9 and Ubiqunol. For flax seed oil, I selected Nature’s Bounty product. There are different recommendations on minimum vs. optimal. I have settled on four pills of Ultra QH and 2 pills of flax seed oil.

To these I added Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate for joint health. Most primary physicians are recommending these for over-50 patients for joint health. Add to that Calcium Citrate for bone health (again physicians recommend these routinely for over-50 patients, especially women).

When I told my physician that I wanted to get off Lipitor and demonstrated to him that with exercise and nutrition I had gotten to within striking range of the target of 100 for LDL, he recommended Red Rice Yeast as “natural statin”. In the last two tests, my LDL has been 90 and 88. So, I am keeping on with Red Rice yeast.

My primary physician had recommended Saw Palmetto for prostate health. I found a good formulation, at VitaminShoppe of Saw Palmetto & Pygeum Complex. That worked well for me. Then I found even a better formulation, Male Rejuvinator at Xtendlife.

Early last year, I did a full hormone panel of tests and found that my Testosterone was quite low. In my search for supplements to rebuild Testosterone, I came across a formulation called Super Miaforte from Life Extension. I have been taking Super Miaforte for about nine months now. Follow up test results for Testosterone have been very encouraging so far.

So, in the middle of last year, I made an appointment with University of Maryland Medical Center, School of Integrative Medicine clinic. There I met with Dr. Lauren Richter, a functional medicine specialist. I told her my objective of purposely living to 120, discussed my lifestyle, showed her all the supplements I was taking and posed to her this question: So, what supplement should I take for an optimal health?

Instead of looking at me cross-eyed, she said that she (and functional medicine specialists) has a very specific approach to figuring out the optimal nutrition in-take. She recommended that I go through blood/urine test called NutrEval FMV by Genova Diagnostics. The tests involve looking at a large number of metabolic biomarkers, and then as a result, deducing very specific recommendations about supplements for optimal health.

Test results pointed out high need for me for the entire B-complex (Thimain -B1, Riboflavin -B2, Niacin-B3, Pyridxine-B6, Biotin-B7, Folic Acid -B9, and Cobalamin-B12), Magnesium and need for me to add Vitamin C, alpha-Lipoic Acid, Molybdenum and Zinc and Probiotics to what I was already taking. Results contained very specific quantities for these. Dr. Richter reviewed what I was already taking and told to me to continue taking those.

Finally, when I discussed with Dr. Richter, my past history of hay fever/allergies, which had re-emerged for a couple of weeks at the beginning of this past fall, she recommended I take Milk Thistle, up the quantity of CoQ10 and add N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) 600mg –all in support of the liver.

So, at that point, I added these recommended supplements to my regime.

I have been doing this full regime faithfully now for about five months. I definitely have had more energy than before. I have not really experienced any side effects so far.

So, there you have it – full story of my supplement regime.

What do you think?

What is your practice/experience/research on supplements?

I would love to hear.

Post #26 – Eating for Optimal Health Part V – Eat Only Healthy Fats and Fat Sources

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, wellness

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In blog post of 9/29/2014: So, what should you eat for optimal health?, I listed the seven basic principles I have extracted from the many diet books and resources I have studied. These principles are:

  1. What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter
  2. Eat clean
  3. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
  4. Use only healthy fats and fat sources
  5. Incorporate sufficient proteins in your diet
  6. Best beverage to drink is pure water
  7. Add or subtract specific foods based on your personal needs

In the last two posts, we discussed the first three of these principles. Today, let’s focus on the fourth principle: Eat only healthy fats and fat sources. And, as usual without any fluff stuff, let’s get to it.

How much and what types of fats one should for optimal health is definitely a very controversial topic. Let’s see if I can put this controversy in proper perspective and reach some workable conclusions in this post.

To make sure that we can intelligently talk about this topics without having to get a graduate degree in biochemistry, first some basic terminology. Lipids, triglycerides, fatty acids, essential fatty acids, fats, saturated fats, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, trans fats, and oils are some common terms we need to understand to really talk about fats. Here are a layman’s definitions of these terms.

Lipids are group of molecules that are used by the body for storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids include waxes, triglycerides, and fat-soluble vitamins.

Triglycerides are lipids derived from glycerol and three fatty acids.

Fatty acids are made up of long chain of carbon hydrogen atoms and are important source of fuel for the body when metabolized. Based on the bond structures, fatty acids can be Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Trans or Saturated.

If Polyunsaturated, based on where the double bonds are located on the chain, fatty acids can be omega-3, omega-6, omega-7 or omenga-9.

Essential fatty acids are those fatty acids that body cannot make. These are of two types: alpha-linolenic acid (an Omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid)

Fats are a wide group of compounds whose basis is a fatty acid. Fats are called Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Trans fats, or Saturated fats based on the structure of their corresponding fatty acid.

Oils are fats that are liquids at normal room temperature.   As you can see below, most oils and fats contain all three types of fats: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated.

Oils and fat content

What most researchers seem to agree on?

  1. Trans Fats are bad – So, Crisco (or Dalda in India) is out. It is definitely bad for your health. Most people have already learned that and taken it out of their kitchens. But it is still quite prevalent for frying at home, baking pies and cookies and in processed food. In the US, since FDA has taken Trans Fats off of the Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) list, it is starting to disappear from processed and restaurant foods.
  2. Adding Essential Fats to your diet is good: While most people get sufficient Omega-6 in their diets they do not get enough Omega-3. So, adding alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is good. Good sources of Omega-3 are fish, flax seeds and oil, safflor oil and Hemp. USDA recommends that at least 10% of the fat budget be Omega-3 fats.
  3. Small amount of saturated fats in diet is good: Saturated fats are needed for cell walls, hormone balance, cellular signaling and increasing HDL (the so called good cholesterol).

What is controversial?

  1. What percent of calories should come from fats: There are researchers who have demonstrated that by reducing the fat intake to 10%, you can dramatically change the lipid profile in the body, cholesterol, triglycerides issues can be totally eliminated, while significantly improving the health of cardio-vascular system (For example, see Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldewell Esselystyn, Jr. MD., The Perfect 10 diet by Michael Aziz, MD). However, to get to these levels for fat intakes, it means adopting vegan or almost-vegan lifestyle and that of course leads to the controversy.
  2. Whether to totally eliminate saturated fats from the diet: It is well-known that too much saturated fat leads to poor cardio-vascular health. However, very small amount of saturated fats are needed and found beneficial for cellular health, hormone balance and cellular signaling and increasing HDL. Controversy therefore comes when people arguing all or nothing approach to saturated fats.
  3. Fats vs. Carbs: When government and media started touting benefits of low fat diets starting in 1960’s and 70’s, people in the US started to replace their high (saturated) fat diets with low-fat high-sugar diet. If you look at any package in the grocery store, if it says, low fat, it usually means high carbs or sugars, or vice versa. This led to obesity and other issues. So, all this means sugars are bad, which means fats must be good, right?
  4. Trans Fats vs. saturated fats: Unfortunately, this controversy was created on purpose. Proctor and Gamble deployed a sales strategy to displace lards as saturated fats by Crisco vegetable shortening. This plot thickens, since P&G was the original funding source for American Heart Association. With 100 years of marketing behind it, there is got to be sufficient confusion prevalent.

Bottom line: So, what is one to do? Here is what I have decided to do, in pursuit of optimal health, based on the best current information I have:

  1. Keep fat intake to less than 15% of daily calories. So, for a 2000 calorie diet, 300 calories or 33 grams from fat in a day.
  2. Take four grams of fish oil and 2 grams of flax seed oil every day. One capsule with each meal or snack.
  3. Limit saturated fats to under  5% of daily calories. Most sources of fats, as we saw in the table above contain some saturate fats, so I don’t really need to add saturated fats, even if we do all the cooking with olive oil. Occasional egg yoke or dab of butter is okay. Since I am a vegetarian,  limiting saturated fats to under 5%is not a big issue. But if I were eating meat, I will have to eat very lean cuts of meat to be able to stay within this constraint.
  4. No Trans Fats.
  5. Manage all macronutrients, fats, carbs and proteins to make sure they all are in the optimal range.

What do you think of this approach?

Do you feel that this simplifies the confusion about fats and good/bad fats?

Do you see a hole in this approach? What would you do differently?

Post #16 – What is stress really and why is it bad for longevity and health?

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Aging, Biomarkers for Stress, Life-Span, Optimal Health, Stress

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Stress has become such a common buzz word. We all talk about it. We generally know it is bad for us. It is constantly in the news.

There are exceptions though. Some believe that stress is good, arguing that if you take away the stress you take away the motivation and drive.

But whenever I get into conversation with someone and start to dig a little deeper with questions like, “So, what do you think is stress?” “Why do you think that stress is bad?” Why do you think it is good?” Or, “How do you deal with stress?” The subject becomes very squishy, very quickly.

Even Hans Selye, the person who originally coined the term stress in 1936 in the context of health and spent life-time studying it, at one time threw up his hands and declared, “Everyone knows what stress is, but no one really knows.”

So, let us take the first question first, what is stress, any ways.

Webster’s Dictionary defines Stress as “a state of mental or worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.”; or, “something that causes strong feelings of worry or anxiety”

According to the American Institute of Stress, another popular definition of stress is, “a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.”

Few useful concepts, while talking about stress are:

Acute Stress: Fight or flight. The body prepares to defend itself. It takes about 90 minutes for the metabolism to return to normal when the response is over.

Chronic Stress: The cost of daily living: bills, kids, jobs…This is the stress we tend to ignore or push down. Left uncontrolled this stress affects our health- our body and our immune system. This is the type of stress that causes wear and tear on our bodies and can impact health and longevity.

Eustress: “Good stress” in daily life that has positive connotations, e.g., marriage, promotion, child birth, winning money, new friends, graduation

Distress: “Bad stress” in daily life that has negative connotations, e.g., divorce, punishment, injury, negative feelings, financial problems, work difficulties.

So, from  the point of view of theses definitions, the stress is really a subjective concept, based on how we perceive a thing or an event. The same event or activity, say a roller coaster ride, could be a eustress (good stress) for one person and distress for another. This is why psychologists or mental health practitioners often get involved in diagnosing and helping cope with chronic stress.

Although stress is a subjective concept, the impact on our bodies is often very objective and real. We have all experienced the rising of hairs on the back of the neck, the sweats, tension in our gut, racing of heart, dilating of pupils, and pumping of blood in our face, arms and legs.

As the following figure shows, stress starting in mind, causes, a chain reaction of neurological, chemical and biological processes. (Figure is taken from a presentation,Why Stress Is A Far More Important Cause Of Coronary Disease Than Cholesterol, by Paul J. Rosch, M.D., F.A.C.P. President, The American Institute of Stress)

Effects of Stress

Physiological effects of most acute stress events subside about 90 minutes after the conclusion of the stress event. Body returns to normal homeostasis or biological equilibrium.

However, it is the repeated acute stress events or chronic stress that are real cause for concern and take toll on our bodies. The results of such chronic stress can be objectively measured from a host of biomarkers that include (from Biomarkers of Chronic Stress, by Laalithya Konduru):

  • Metabolic Biomarkers: Cholesterol, Albumin, Waist-to-Hip Ratio, Glycosylated Hemoglobin
  • Immunological Biomarkers: IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, IGF-1
  • Neuroendocrine Biomarkers: Cortisol, DHEA, Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Dopamine, Aldosterone
  • Certain Metabolites, chemical figure prints of cellular processes
  • Modifications in Mitochondria
  • Induction in the Brain of DRR1, a tumor suppressor gene

Most of us recognize some of these biomarkers. Others are quite esoteric. In any case, from this list, it does not take a neuroscientist to figure out that chronic stress can mess with a number of things that are key to our health: insulin, cholesterol, hormones, our immune system, can cause inflammation, reduce energy level in the body and impact working of our brain.

Looks like a real important subject to me, if we want to live healthy life free of chronic diseases for an optimal life span.

What do you think? How do you fee about stress?

In a future post, I would like to explore some anti-dotes to chronic stress

Post #12 – My SECOND Year of Experience with Bikram Yoga

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Living to 120, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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Here is my SECOND year of experience with Bikram Yoga that I wrote down in February 2014. This makes a nice sequel to my last week’s blog post, where I shared the first year of experience.

Today is Presidents Day 2014, two years after I started the Bikram Yoga. It seems like a good time to reflect on my progress with Bikram Yoga.

Experimenting for Regaining Control of Breath

At the beginning of my second year, I started experimenting and also talked to various teachers about my desire to keep control of my breath and conserve energy to perfect my poses. Most of the teachers discouraged skipping an asana, emphasizing that that asana are designed with certain flow in mind. Best suggestion, I thought, came from Rosa. She advised to do the first sets as easy as I needed to and then give my all in the second sets.

I started this technique with almost skipping the first sets. Then slowly I started to do the firsts sets lightly to build endurance and maintain form. I would then give my all in the second set, reminding myself that I could always skip the first set of the following asana if I needed to regain control of my breath. I felt better and better with this method.

Reintroducing Strength Training

One downside I found for doing Bikram only was that after a year I started to feel that my strength was waning. I did not feel as confident in simple things like lifting my laptop brief case, which is about 30lbs. In April 2013, Kimberly and I restarted working out with our trainer Saleem for one day every week. Initially, I would do three times Bikram and one time Saleem every week. For the last few months, I have settled into twice Bikram and one time Saleem. With Saleem’s workouts, my strength is definitely back. With Birkram twice a week, I am able to maintain the flexibility and balance.

Visit to the Egoscue Clinic – Crooked Body Fixers

Another thing I was quite encouraged by was improvements in my knee pain through Bikram. So, I decided to see if I could really get them to be 100% cured. For that I decided to visit with the local Egoscue Clinic. Kristen Thor, the therapist there, showed me that my knees were misaligned in that they were pronated, i.e., faced outwards. Although, knees were my major concern why I went to her, she also showed me that the reason my right shoulders kept getting stiff whenever I worked out with heavy weights is that my upper body was misaligned in that my right shoulder was rotated forward. That, she said, was also the reason why my right wrist would hurt when I would put weight on it, for example, when I did pushups. She was clearly able to demonstrate these issues.

As she worked through those issues, I also told her about my awkwardness with the Awkward Pose (Utkat Aasna) or even weighted squats. For that she showed me that my upper back lacked flexibility and did not have the proper curvature. This made it difficult for me to balance when I did the Awkward Pose or the squats. For years, Saleem and my sons have been telling me to stick my butt out while squatting, which was hard to do, according to Kristen, if my upper back did not provide me the counter balance when I was sticking my butt out.

Finally, I talked to her about how it felt difficult and my back used to get really tired when I was doing the Standing Head to Knee Pose (Dandyamana Janusheer Aasna). For that, she told me that my hips were not open and flexible enough.

So, over a period of about seven months, I worked with her. I started to feel improvements with my posture in general, my Saleem workouts, and the Bikram poses. Knees got even better. Finally, she gave me routines to do before doing my Saleem and Bikram sessions. Pre-Saleem exercises are to warm up my shoulders before the workout. Pre-Bikram e-cises are to open my hips and upper body before the class.

My knees pain is mostly gone. I can comfortably do weighted lunges, weighted squats, and single leg jump ropes. I have not really felt any significant pain in months. Although, based on memories, I still often hesitate before I do knee straining exercises, as I have been conscious of the knees for years now.

The Joe Dillon Difference

Oh yeah another thing. During our May 2013 Vistage meeting, I met our Vistage speaker Joe Dillon. He was a 69 year old in-your-face kind of guy, who has coached Olympic swimmers and thousands of other people. He got me thinking that it was possible to change my body composition, with the right nutrition. You mean I could dramatically reduce my body fat percent by simply changing what I eat? With the information I got from him and his book and videos, I dramatically changed my eating habits. With Joe Dillon’s protein shakes and Full Strength protein shakes, I added about my body weight equivalent in grams of proteins every day to my intake. I eliminated most raw sugar and flour based products from my meals and started to do a better job for sugar management. I also added to my diet fish oil (Omega-3 Ultra from X-tendlife.com), Flax Seed Oil and a better quality of daily vitamins and supplements (from Premium Daily vitamins from X-tendlife.com).

Since June 2013, when I started the program my weight has decreased only by about four to six pounds, but body fat percent has decreased from 25% to 18%. That means I have added about 7 lbs of muscles and lost about 12 lbs of fat. And, my belly fat is down by 3 inches! I like the trend.

Wow, I Can Touch My Head to My Knee and Hold!

With all these factors and as my endurance built up at Bikram, I started to do the first set more and more deeply. And, I made significant progress on some harder poses. While all of the poses can be done better and at a deeper level, by now, I can reach closer to the final expression of most poses. In the Standing Head to Knee pose, I can now touch head to knee as the final expression for the three counts, though not very gracefully. My knees get a little wobbly. I can almost do Toe Stands with hands in prayer position, but not always for the complete time. My awkward poses are fairly deep and decent, and am able to rise much more slowly in the third part. I can see my complete foot over my head in the Standing Bow. I am able to touch my head against knees in the rabbit pose. My Triangle pose is nice and deep and stable.

And, at times, if the room is not too hot, or my body is feeling up to it, I even attempt the first sets with all I got.

No More Lipitor

Oh yeah. I did two blood works to test my Cholesterol over the last seven months, WITHOUT taking Lipitor. In August, my LDL was 135, so I added Red Rice Yeast to my supplements and in January it was 124. My primary care physician said that with these types of results I can safely stay off Lipitor. Yeah! That is another big goal accomplished. Check.

So, today on Presidents Day, February 17, 2014, on my second anniversary of Bikram Yoga, where to from here:

  1. All the poses can of course be done better. I would like to keep working on improving the poses and my teachers to keep critiquing me for the finer points of my postures. Twice a week seems like good maintenance discipline. At some point, I may want to do another 30-day challenge to see if I can get another step improvement. At this time, I am doing too much other stuff to do any more than twice a week.
  2. I have already raised my goal for body composition – Six Pack at Sixty! For that I would need to get to 12% body fat percent by my birthday. I have another six months until my 60th birthday. I may need to add another couple of days’ worth of workout a week, even just aerobics or walks with weights to create the needed caloric deficit, to get to the body fat target. And, I have to make sure I am providing my body enough protein to build the needed lean mass.   Saleem has also recommended for me to do some Abs and Core workout during the week on my own.
  3. I would like to get an X-ray done of my knees to see if there is any cartilage that is worn out and not yet rebuilt. Then I could more precisely focus on getting that to 100%.
  4. Continue to do Egoscue a couple of times a week in addition to the pre-Saleem and pre-Bikram sessions. Also, work in at least one set of Egoscue Tower e-cises a week for alignment. Getting Tower in has been the hardest part for last couple of months.
  5. Ringing in my ear has not abated. I only feel it when I focus on it. I need a solution for that. Don’t have any solution yet, other than getting a hearing aid, which the Audiologist said, sometimes fixes it.

Post #11 – My first year of experience with Bikram Yoga

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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There are few topics on which if you get me started, it is usually very hard for me to stop.  You may even be sorry, you asked me a question.

I have already shared a couple of these in my blog posts – reversing allergies and fixing headache without meds. Here is another of my favorite subject these days – Bikram Yoga.  I have been practicing Bikram Yoga now for over two years.

Here is my first year of experience with Bikram Yoga that I wrote down in February 2013.

If this invokes any thoughts or questions, I would love to hear about it.

Our Thursday Night Date

“How about we go check out this place that does Bikram Yoga in Columbia and then we will go out to dinner somewhere there?” I asked Kimberly suggesting this as an activity for our Thursday night date.

“Ok,” She said very agreeably.

On the way there, I told her that for several weeks I had been feeling stiffness in my shoulders and at times in my neck also.  I had heard that Bikram Yoga is done in a hot room. I was thinking that may be over the upcoming long weekend for President’s day, it would help limber up my shoulders and neck.

When we got there, the woman at the front desk, Rachel, introduced herself as a Bikram Yoga teacher and gave us a tour of the facility.  She told us that we should come in with a yoga mat and three different towels, one for the mat, one for shower and a hand towel. I made up my mind right there and then, and asked Kimberly for her support and company in doing the yoga over the long weekend.

So, How Was the Class?

The next day, Kimberly said that she was not feeling very well, but went with me anyways for moral support. So, I got to experience the first class by myself, while she sat out in the lobby with a book.

As I returned from the class, she looked up from her book and asked, “So, how was the class?”

I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind, “There is a lot of growth opportunity here.”

You see, I had been working out quite regularly, for over 10 year with my trainer, Saleem Udqa.  I started with him as I was approaching 50. In fact, both Kimberly and I and even our sons Daniel and Justin have been working out under his guidance at our home.  Saleem advocates a very holistic type of regime, strength training, free weights, cardio conditioning, reaction training, TRAX, lot of conditioning, balance, stretching for flexibility and a lot of skills for everyday life. So, I thought I was in a pretty good shape. But it was not easy being in the heated yoga room and doing the poses for full 90 minutes.  I had to stop several times, either being out of breath or just too hot and feeling dizzy.  I was not even close to getting into many postures. I definitely felt very challenged.  So, I told Kimberly I was going to do the yoga every day for one week, taking full advantage of the one week subscription that I had purchased.

On the second or third day, I decided to pick up the two books by Bikram: Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class and Bikram Yoga – The Guru Behind Hot Yoga.  The first one is about the postures and the other about his life story and has details about concepts yoga.  As I read those two books I was even more intrigued about the Bikram Yoga routine. In the books, Bikram Chaudhary lays out the rationale for his routine. He described how the routine works out every part of the body, both inside and out.  And, he described the principle of extension and contraction, to flush out all organs in the body with oxygen rich blood flow and how that is a key to healing.  In his books, he also challenges readers to do the routine every day for 60 days and promises that after 60 days, they will be able to do 80% of the postures 80% right.

So, I announced to Kimberly that I was going to put our workout with Saleem on a hold and to do Bikram Yoga every day for 60 days.

Why am I Having Such a Hard Time Simply Bending Backwards?

It took about a week to get used to the heat and a few more days before I started to get through the whole routine without having to take breaks.  After a couple of weeks, I could tell what posture was coming next and see in my mind the whole routine.  About then I also started having breakthroughs in different postures.

Well into the third week, I still could not even bend backwards for the Camel pose without getting dizzy.  Finally, I asked yoga teacher Kat, “Why am I having such a hard time simply bending backwards? It does not seem the Camel pose by itself is such big a deal.”  She told me that that experience was very common and I simply needed to push through it. And, lo and behold, that day I “pushed through it” and was able to bend backwards without getting dizzy.

For the Firm Fixed pose, in the beginning I had excruciating pain in my knees. I could not even fully sit between my feet with my butt on the ground. When knees got better, ankles hurt. When ankles got better, quads were too tight and hurt. Each day my body got more and more limber until few days later, I was able to push through and do the full pose.

Learning the Nuances

Starting with the fourth week, Kimberly joined in. By that time, having accompanied me so many times, she had become, according to one teacher, “the most well-known non-yoga student in the studio”. So, now I had someone to talk to in detail about different postures.  I had read through the technical details of poses in Bikram’s book.  We started comparing where we were with respect to the final expression of the poses.  I would also talk to other guys in the locker room to get hints and tips. I noticed that because of me showing up every day I was progressing quite fast and was soon beyond where a lot of guys were who had been doing Bikram Yoga for much longer but not as regularly.

We would also discuss what we would hear from different teachers in their dialogue. Kimberly and I would always talk about and share any nuance we would learn. Heidi would always emphasize breathing. So, we learned how to breathe properly from her. Kat started us off on the fully relaxation during the last Shava asana. So, I started developing a routine to fully take advantage of Shava asana at the end. I started setting my mat right next to the teachers, so it would be easier for them to see me doing things wrong and correct me. I would always take time to thank them for correcting me, so they would feel even more comfortable correcting me. When Bikram Chaudhary was in the area, we went to hear his talk to pick up any further motivation and nuances.

In those beginning months, my yoga practice also seemed very susceptible to who was teaching the class. I would come home, discouraged, wiped out, elated, encouraged or feeling that room was all over the place based on who was teaching. That was in spite of the fact that I found I could always learn something new from every teacher. I even requested a couple of teachers if they could enunciate verbs a little louder. As the time passed, I learned to focus more and more on myself and it became easier to hear and stay in sync with the teachers.

60-day Obsession

It turned out to be not that easy to do yoga every single day.  I was quite busy at the office and was also traveling quite a bit. Once I had a dinner meeting in Crystal City. So, I found a studio in Falls Church for an afternoon class before the meeting. While traveling to Peachtree City, I found a studio in Decatur, GA outside Emory University.  I found a hotel room near the studio, did a session from 7:30 to 9pm and then another session starting at 5:30am the next morning.

One day I flew myself back from Fayetteville, NC, did an afternoon conference call, ate a piece of cold Mediterranean pizza while on the call and then ran off to do yoga. With the very first set of postures, as I bent down for Head to Feet pose, I felt like I was going to throw up.  After completing the yoga session with great difficulty, I did a forced throw up to purge my stomach. I came home and got sick anyways. I realized that I had been pushing myself way too hard and had probably compromised my immune system – before I even talk about eating pizza right before yoga. I still had one week to go before my 60 days were up.  It took me 5 days to heal, after which I did do the last week to complete my 60 day personal challenge.

The Rewards, Proselytizing and Bikram Yoga Lifestyle

After 60 days, it did seem that I was doing about 80% of the postures about 80% right. Right after completing 60 days, I went in for my blood work for cholesterol.  That came out really well. LDL was lowest it had been for a while. HDL was highest it had been for a while. My weight was in ideal range, between 162 and 164 lbs. My knee pain had mostly abated.  I had started prancing on my toes down the stairs. My sinuses had become very clear.  I had lost an inch of my height over the last few years; I got most of that back.  My meditation felt deeper and quieter.   I noticed that Kimberly’s skin was much more moist and softer than before. She has had very dry skin in the past. She noticed that her varicose veins were disappearing.

After that initial period, Kimberly and I decided that we will just do Bikram as the main form of our physical exercise and discontinue Saleem.  I decided that may be this was the way to take my health to the next level and achieve my goal that I set a couple of years ago, “Better health at 60 than at 50.” So, we settled into our routine of yoga 3 times a week.

6 months later, in August, I went in for a complete physical. Everything was still great.

When Boys came home during the summer, we introduced them both to Bikram Yoga.  Both seemed to enjoy it and benefited from it. Excited about our new find, we also introduced Bikram friends and family. We personally introduced about half-a-dozen people to Bikram. Out of all those folks, two have taken this up as a regular part of their life.

We took almost 3-week break from Yoga in October when we did Pancha Karma program at the Ayurveda Institute in Albuquerque, NM. During the PK program, while on Kitchuri, i.e., Rice and Lentils, diet, body was too weak to handle the full Bikram routine.  In fact, we learned a very gentle form of Yoga at the Institute, they called Ayuer Yoga.

At the beginning of 2013, I decided to do another 30 day challenge and may be even turn that into 60 day challenge, if I was feeling good.  After 11 days, I got sick.  I think, again, I had been pushing myself hard, both at work and otherwise.  So, I backed off for a few days.  Another time, my lower back was hurting a little.  But against my better judgment, I chose to push through all the postures, including sit ups, which teachers always remind us to skip if there are any issues with the back.  That night my whole back froze.  It took me four five days to limber it up to get back to normal.

One Year Later

So, on President’s day 2013, a year later, as I write this, where am I?

  1. Bikram Yoga continues to offer significant potential for growth, in conditioning, balance, flexibility and general health.
  2. I can do most of the postures quite well. All of these postures can always be done better. Progress happens every time, but mostly in inches and centimeters
  3. For certain postures, I have yet to achieve anywhere close to full final expression, notably, for Standing Head to Knee and Toe Stand poses.
  4. I always feel like pushing myself, but lately I have been more conscious of keeping control of my breath.  It seems appropriate to back off, if I am losing control of my breath. So, I skip one or both sets of a pose to regain control of my breath and then jump back in.
  5. Based on above observations, I am thinking of an experiment: just to do only every other pose, so I will have enough energy available to perfect the postures, while maintaining control of my breath.  In one session, I will do poses 1, 3, 5… and then next time 2, 4, 6 etc. Once perfected I would start doing all 26 postures together again.
  6. Although I have much more flexibility and balance than I had a year ago, I don’t feel quite as strong as I used to feel. I have been wondering about experimenting with strength training to supplement yoga.

About 2 to 3 months into Bikram Yoga, I started experiencing ringing in my ears.  I don’t know if that was a coincidence.  I got the ears checked without any definitive diagnostic or cure. Ayuervedic Institute folks thought it was correlated with high Vata. I would like to heal this.

Post #8 – So, did I tell you the story about my allergies?

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Living to 120, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Vigor

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Or, my first lesson that chronic “diseases” can be reversed.

One day in the fall of 1985, at the University of Maryland, I was walking around my office rubbing my itchy eyes to get some relief. My secretary Janice said that my eyes looked bloodshot and suggested that I should go get them checked out with my doctor. When I told her that I did not have a doctor, she promptly made an appointment with her own doctor.

The doctor took a quick look at my eyes and told me that it was “just seasonal allergies.” I had arrived from India eight year earlier and can honestly say that I had never heard of the word “allergies” before coming to the US. So naturally, I asked the doc what seasonal allergies were. He said not to worry too much about it. It is probably Ragweed that I was allergic to. I should just go buy a bottle of non-prescription one milligram Chlorpheniramine, a generic anti-histamine, to take it for a few weeks until the season passed. When I asked him how I would know when to stop taking it, he said to take it for just a few weeks, I would know when season changes and not to worry too much about it since it was not a big deal.

Well, the following year, my allergies were a little worse. I started sniffling in addition to having itchy eyes. So, I started taking 2 milligrams. Even bigger dose the next year and so on. A few years later, my allergies would now kick-in even in spring season with pollen from blooming trees. In DC area, we have a lot of those. By 1995, I was suffering from allergies for about six months in a year, two months of spring season and four months of the fall season. Allergies had gotten so bad that I would feel like a zombie for half of the year, sneezing, sniffling with fever-like symptoms.

In 1993, I started learning how to fly. I could not afford to take drowsy antihistamine while flying. So, the doctor started to give me cocktails – non-drowsy stuff during the day and drowsy meds for the evenings. I was taking equivalent of 12mg antihistamine during the day and another 12 mg at night. Some of these meds had side-effects, like increased heart palpitations. So, I needed to go the doctor regularly to get checked out. My immune system was getting worse. I would get viral infection two three times a year, each episode started to last longer and longer

During all this time I would ask my physician about what was going on with my body and he would say, “Well, it’s the immune system. We don’t know much about the immune system.”

While this was going on, I had also gotten my cholesterol checked. My first blood test, in July 1990, showed my total cholesterol as 275, LDL of 205, HDL 39 and Triglycerides 155. Doctor gave me some pamphlets about lowering cholesterol through change in diet. Following that diet guidance, my cholesterol came down by as much as 52 points; this was still much higher than the then standard of 180 for the total cholesterol and 130 for LDL. My doc told me that I probably had genetic issues and had to get on some cholesterol lowering drug. A couple I tried had serious side effects like itchy skin and rash, so I discontinued those.

In September of 1995, I attended a 10 day program, Life Mastery, my first of Tony Robbins’s three Mastery University programs. At that program, on the first day, as part of creating our health baseline, we got our blood work done. My total cholesterol that day was 265. Seven days into the program, everybody who had excessive cholesterol got tested again. This time my total cholesterol was 183, an 82 points drop in 7 days! I was pleasantly shocked. That is big a change in one week. I had never been able to achieve such results, nor had my doctor ever shared even a possibility that such a change was possible with any change in lifestyle.

Armed with that experience and more knowledge about some methods for cleansing, when I returned I started to aggressively explore the possibility of curing my allergies. In my search, I ran into an organization called Washington University of Integrative Medicine. Starting October 1996, I worked with them to undertake a number of different lifestyle changes and therapies. I changed my eating habits. I quit dairy, meat, alcohol, coffee, and chocolate. They did colonics for me every other week to cleanse my colon, coffee colonics to stimulate my liver, and I would take various supplements to support my liver and immune system.

When the spring of 1997 rolled around, results became very clear. I suffered allergies only for just a few days at the beginning of that spring season and on a few very bad pollen days. In the fall of 1997 also, my experience was similar. Every season that followed, my allergies got better as opposed to getting worse as I had been experiencing since 1985.

A couple of years after my experiment with the alternative methods of curing my allergies, I went back to my physician. I needed to have him sign some papers so that I could use my health savings funds for alternative therapies. I told him my story of how I had cured my allergies. He thumped the table and got visibly angry and yelled, “These things don’t work!” I had always known him as a very mild mannered gentleman. Then I told him the other reason I had pursued this therapy was to manage my cholesterol. Regaining his composure, he said that cholesterol he could measure objectively. He challenged me to get blood work done and then return to see him.

Well, in March 1998, I got the blood work done. Total cholesterol came out to be 192 with LDL at 131. See the chart below of my cholesterol history for the last 25 years. Back paddling a little, he said, “The reason we don’t push lifestyle changes is because 95% people cannot make those changes. Whatever you are doing you should keep doing since it is working for you.” As for the allergies he wrote on my chart, SPONTANEOUS REMISSION. I left doctor’s office shaking my head in disbelief and decided to change doctor.

Cholestrol History

Nineteen years later now, I am totally free of allergies and my immune is system is strong enough that I don’t much get sick from common colds and flus. If I do catch a cold I bounce back in a day or two. Cholesterol is a whole another story. Few years later, the new standard for cholesterol became 150 for total and less than 100 for LDL. In 2007, I finally gave in and started taking Lipitor to bring my cholesterol within that range.

More recently, I have learned some more about impact of nutrition and lifestyle on coronary diseases and as a result made further changes. About a year ago, I discontinued Lipitor and have done three blood works since then, each a little bit better than the one before. The most recent blood work shows total cholesterol of 146 and LDL of 90. Moreover, my HDL is a fairly healthy 46, while triglycerides at 48, the lowest ever in 25 years!

So, that is my story about curing my allergies and managing cholesterol through nutrition. Motivated by this experience, I have accumulated a few other personal stories about preventing or curing certain other issues and have also collected further knowledge that many of the “chronic conditions” I discussed in earlier posts measured through vitality biomarkers are preventable and curable.

And that’s where I get this passion for collecting and disseminating evidence and research based information about preventing and curing chronic conditions through lifestyle changes.

Do you have a similar story?

Have you been able to reverse certain chronic conditions through lifestyle changes?

I would love to hear of such stories, both as a means for gathering inspiration and for collecting accurate experiential knowledge that we can pass along to others.