over two pounds of veg a day keeps constipation away

I've been eating (and drinking) over two pounds (1 kg) of vegetables
a day for the past three months. Plus meat and cheese and eggs and fish
and nuts and yoghurt and small amounts of gluten free low carb bread...
I am guessing it's about 50% veg and 50% the other stuff. I do not believe
in any kind of fasting, especially not for people with CFS who need all the
strength they can get from food or anywhere else. I just thought that I needed
more natural vitamins and stuff and after reading the book
'Minding my mitochondria' I thought I'd give it a try.

It was really impossible at first to get such a volume of food down. So I
decided to juice some of it and that made it a little easier. But since I am
a very strict low carber my choices for juicing are limited and my veg juices
don't taste very nice. I am using quite a bit of cabbage (white and red),
celery stalks and cucumber and limited amounts of fennel, carrots and
red beets which have more carbs. I have to be careful, If I eat more than
50 gr carbs a day I immediately put on weight. I'll have about half of
my veg as juice and the rest as whole veg: green beans, kohlrabi, green salads,
cauliflower, radishes, spinach, bamboo sprouts, tomatoes, zucchini, aubergines,
artichokes, asparagus, leek, spring onion, endives...
(I do not have a machine for juicing. I put my selection into my blender and
after blending with 1-2- cups of water I strain it through a plastic sieve.
And I leave quite a bit of fiber in because that works best for my bowels)

At first all the veg did nothing at all, then about 5 weeks into the experiment
the constipation I had been fighting with for the last ten years started to lift.
I had been taking huge amounts of magnesium to cope with it. 
Now, three months in, I don't need any magnesium at all for this purpose.
I still take magnesium against cramps and restless leg syndrome but I need
only a fraction of what I used to take. And that's great because magnesium
can be quite harsh on the stomach and gut lining. If I eat less than 800gr a day
the constipation comes back. If I eat over 1200gr it clears out completely.

But the primary reason why I started this vegetable binge is my constant
excruciating fatigue. And it hasn't budged an inch. Maybe it takes longer
maybe there's no connection. I'll continue anyway because the constipation
relief alone is worth the hassle.

ATP: normal levels and causes of low ATP production

I got my new ATP levels a couple of weeks ago and they were at 0.53 nmol/l

my first measurement of ATP levels showed 0.46 nmol/l    (beginning of November 2012)

6 weeks later                                                    0.50               (mid December 2012)

7 weeks later                                                    0.52               (end of January 2013)

and again 6 weeks later                                    0.53               (mid March 2013)

all in all that's roughly a 15% improvement in about 5 month which is not bad at all, still I'm a bit disappointed because the improvement has slowed down so much and nearly stopped alltogether.

I found a paper on normal ATP count in healthy adults and they all had levels around 8.5 nmol/l

unfortunately my computer crashed at some point and I lost the link. If I find again it I'll post it here.

So, the question is: how do I get my ATP count up? The Gesswein protocol has brought some improvements but it's stopped working. Also the danger of overmedicating is relatively high with this protocol (i.e. my Vitamin D problems).


Possible causes of ATP production problems:

1. problems with lack of nutriens 
                                1.1. bad diet /not enough supplements etc.
                                1.2. bad absorption of nutrients
                                1.3. disrupted transport of nutrients to the cells

2. promlems with the transport of nutrients/ATP across the mitochondrial cell membranes
                                2.1. nutrients in
                                2.2. ATP out

3. problems with ATP production itself
                                3.1. not enough mitochondria
                                3.2. damaged mitochondria

4. problems with ATP - ADP recycling


 so that's the big question then, where is the problem? how can I find it out?

I'll be posting more soon

Natural Vitamin D-Levels

Vitamin D is still quite a mystery to me - So here's an update on what's been happening to me

my levels used to be really low (last autumn around 40)
then I took Vitamin D as a sublingual spray and my levels skyrocketed
and even after I stopped taking it my levels still increased (up to 230 at the last test two weeks ago)
that's of course far too high

But what I have noticed doesn't seem to be such a bad thing at least at first glance:

 

a huge change in my circadian rhythm:

 

I used to have problems with sleeping, I only managed to go to sleep around 2 am and woke up 3-4 times a night. Now I get so tired, not the sickly exhausted CFS feeling, but real overwhelming genuine tiredness, that I go to sleep just before midnight and sleep until eight with just one or two interruptions. And it makes a small but noticeable difference: I have more 'good' days. Meaning that on the CFS ability scale I'll be a 3 instead of a 2 more often.

 

But this happened only when my levels went over 200.

The usual opinion is that optimal Vitamin D levels are between 60-80 or 60-100 at most.

One German guy, Dr. Gesswein gives values from 180-230 which seems oddly high.


So I searched the net for 'normal' levels and finally found an article on 'natural' levels here:

http://www.vitamindsociety.org/benefits.php

Natural Levels of Vitamin D

 

Sunlight = Vitamin D: Humans make 90 percent of their vitamin D naturally through sun exposure to the skin (without sunscreen). In Canada‚ our northern climate means UVB levels in sunlight are too weak 4-6 months of the year to make any vitamin D naturally.

What is the intended, natural level of vitamin D that the human body was designed to operate with?

Humans evolved in the horn of Africa, close to the Equator over 30,000 years ago. They spent their days out in the full sun, with no clothing, hunting and gathering food. Their skin pigment evolved and protected them from sun burns and allowed the production of vitamin D through the skin. Nature never intended for humans to live and work indoors, in cubicles, without sunshine exposure.

 

Non-Human Primates: 125 – 200 nmol/L
Vieth 2004 – Why the optimal requirement for Vitamin D3 is probably much higher than what is officially recommended for adults    

Maasai and Hadzabe, Tanzania: 115 nmol/L
Luxwolda 2012 – Traditionally living populations in East Africa have a mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration of 115 nmol/L

 

Outdoor Workers – Lifeguards: 163 nmol/L
Haddad 1971 – Competitive protein-binding radioassay for 25-hydroxycholecalciferol

 

Outdoor Workers – Puerto Rico Farmers:135 nmol/L
Haddock 1982 – 25(OH)D serum levels in normal Puerto Rican population and its subjects with tropical sprue and parathyroid disease

 

Outdoor Workers – Nebraska: 122 nmol/L
Barger-Lux, Heaney 2002 – Effects of above average summer sun exposure on serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D and calcium absorption

 

Indoor Tanners: 95 nmol/L
Schwalfenberg 2010 – Addressing vitamin D deficiency in Canada: A public health innovation whose time has come

 

Average Canadian: 68 nmol/L
Statistics Canada – Langlois 2010 – Vitamin D status of Canadians as measured in the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey

 

Dermatologists: 35 nmol/L
Czarnecki 2009 – The vitamin D status of Australian Dermatologists

 

Grassroots Health and over 40 Vitamin D Scientists recommend achieving an optimal Vitamin D level for disease prevention of 100-150 nmol/L using a 25(OH)D blood test. This is the natural levels that the human body had as it evolved over thousands of years. Everyone should have their vitamin D 25(OH)D blood serum levels tested and make sure they are within these guidelines.

So maybe the D-levels should be a lot higher than the mainstream 60-80 recommendation

I however will try to get my levels down to under 150 asap hoping that the benefits of my circadian rhythm change will stay with me.


(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am only searching for solutions and trying out things to improve my quality of life. Do not try anything I didjust on a whim. Always ask a qualified doctor for advice before trying something. All I am writing about are my personal experiences as my very own guinea pig. Everybody is different and I cannot be held responsible for anything anybody tries out.)