Simplifying the science that makes health work

Join me as I advance my own health

This website is an attempt to share with you what has helped me understand my body well enough to correct several serious situations. I do my best to provide everyone with options. But, even when we have guidance from the best doctor(s), I think it’s best to learn our own body and take charge as our own healing advocates.

Nobody knows our body as well as we do. Being able to communicate what’s going on should only help the situation if we are working with the right people.

So where do I start?

There are a few variables that influence a starting point.

  • Is there one major issue
  • Is the issue unknown
  • Is this ongoing or new
  • Are we still stressing all day
  • Are we making an attempt at putting ourselves first
  • Are we making big changes for big improvements
  • Do we still have a lot of learning to do
  • Do we understand enough to start moving forward
  • Do we have the knowledge to dive in

Even when twins develop at the same time, they can have completely different biochemistry. With so much potential for differences, nobody knows our own body like we do. 

Starting with a solid foundation

A lot of people replenish nutrients without testing. But knowing where our chemistry has existing bottlenecks can make the situation much easier. Dr. Ben Lynch’s new DNA test makes it easy to focus where we need to.

This test does not hold our hand through healing, but it does give a better idea what to avoid and where to focus.

Important Pathways

  • Folate Pathway
  • Methionine Pathway
  • Serotonin
  • Melatonin
  • Dopamine
  • Norepinephrine
  • Epinephrine
  • Biopterin
  • Histamine

Features

  • Researched Genetic Variants
  • Pathway Diagrams
  • Vitamins and Minerals
  • Influencing Factors

147 Function SNPs

75 Genes

  • Full Bibliography
  • Doctor Trusted
  • Community Support
  • Raw Data

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Learn more

Support the basics

Did you know our cells use sodium and potassium to set themselves up to transfer nutrients? Electrolytes are almost like our cell’s wiring or circuit board. Understanding electrolytes and having an idea where my levels are is one of my main focuses. Without these, I am like a computer with broken circuit boards, or a phone with just enough battery to make an emergency call.

The Iodine Protocol includes sodium in the form of unrefined salt, as well as magnesium, which are a good start to electrolytes. But once we start getting more nutrients, we’ll need large amounts of potassium and a small amounts of calcium to move forward. Potassium and calcium should come from mainly food though with a few phases of supplementation to help raise levels. Read more about electrolytes on my iodine site  https://whyiodine.com/electrolytes

Digest and eat real food

Eating 100% clean can be a little too much most of the time. But understanding clean eating is very important. I learned a lot about food and hidden ingredients by doing a 30 day elimination diet called Whole30 by reading a book called It Starts with Food. I wrote about toxicity and eating clean in this section of my iodine site.

A section on Detox @ whyiodine.com

Our main goal with this is balancing stomach acid and supporting fat digestion. Without these two, it’s like having a leaky fuel tank and wondering why we can’t make it all the way to work.

Support digestive issues

Without proper stomach acid we cannot digest B12, protein and other nutrients. 1 Our food also ends up making it to areas of our gut at the wrong pH which offsets the various environments of our gut. 2 When our stomach acid is low, we may increase our chances of an infection called h. pylori, 3 which can attach to our stomach lining and alter our ability to maintain stomach acid.4 5 6 This infection can be difficult to get rid of due to easily sharing it with people we share environments with. 7 8 Over time we can end up with imbalances in our biome like SIBO etc.9 The wrong bacteria can turn our food into toxins. 10 Sometimes this can be resolved with proper diet and probiotics. 11 Without proper fat digestion, the oxalates in the plants we eat can end up in our blood and tissue, 12 which is being connected to various autoimmune related conditions. 13 So once we have stomach acid in check and our gut isn’t creating toxins, supporting fat digestion with ox bile and digestive enzymes can be handy. to be continued

Finding the right fuel for the job

Now that I’m able to digest, absorb and transport nutrients, I can focus on all of the various nutrients my cells need in order to power and rebuild themselves.

By researching the symptoms that have been holding me back for decades, or currently plaguing my health, I was able to slowly reverse engineer my biological configuration. Using individual supplements, I was able to learn a lot about how my body functions. But over time I eventually located a handful of products that allow me to move forward very easily.

After several years of various diets, supplements and protein powders, I tried Arbonne’s 30-day Healthy Living and was amazed by the results. For less than $5 per day, I replaced hours of food prep and several supplements with nutrition that worked much better for my body.

I started Arbonne in January 2020 and have only gone a few weeks without their protein powder since. I slowly use and replace some of the other components from the 30-day kit, but for the most part I just use the protein powder as a nutritional boost

This short video on my Facebook page Sick of Tired explains how the nutrients of this powder line up with and run my nutritional engine that keeps my health moving forward.

More nutrients to make more cells

Now that I am digesting, absorbing, transporting and consuming all of these nutrients, I can start really pushing into detox and rebuilding cells.

 

A simple multivitamin geared around basic methylation helps me get an idea how well I’m methylating.

If I can take this daily and feel great, I’m methylating well.

If taking this daily causes me anxiety etc, I need more time in nature, basic nutrition, reduced toxic input/environment and a focus on infections.

Once I’m digesting and methylating well, I’m providing my body with most of what it needs to run it’s metabolism. Without this core step running well, it’s like a car with a weak engine, or a blacksmith or pizza maker with a weak oven. We need a strong metabolism to help us fuel everything else we need to do.

Our metabolism is our energy, but its synchronized with our overall health. Without digestion and electrolytes to transport a good balance of nutrients, we don’t have anything to metabolize. But without metabolizing well, there is no use for whatever various nutrients we’re getting.

For the pizza maker to cook and sell his pizza properly, he had to sell pizza last month and pay the fuel bill to keep the oven running. We’re doing the same thing in a different way. If we try to cheat the system long enough, it will most likely eventually crash which requires a lot of intervention to correct.

Time for detox

If dense packages of nutrients similar to my Arbonne shakes or Multivitamins mentioned above are causing me to continually feel better and go through potentially negative digestive changes that are causing me to feel better and remove old stuff, I continue taking them and try slowly adding more if that continues to help.

Once things level off and I am not able to find any nutrients to cause me to move forward with detox, I add some iodine in an attempt to knock something loose.

This is similar to pruning a tree or plant. The iodine allows us to prune cells with a method called apoptosis. If our digestion and metabolism are working well enough, we can handle a certain amount of toxic cell pruning. But this process takes time and our body is going to attempt rebuilding cells where we’ve been pruning.

We really need to appreciate what our cells are doing here. First they disassemble themselves to a degree and drop the components and toxins into our bloodstream. Now other cells in our liver & kidneys etc attempt grabbing these toxins and reducing them into something that can be excreted via sweat, breath, pee or poo.

As awesome as this whole process is, it takes time and we need to keep the system in balance. These processes are expensive, and can easily burn up our energy reserves. If we have major clogs of sorts like mega high histamines or oxalates, or several dirty genes, this process can be very touchy. Sometimes these roadblocks require very specific focus, but restarting at the top of this page and repeating the process should allow us to move forward as long as we can get this type of nutrition without reactions.

  1. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-%20%20Consumer
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6702393/
  3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8978346/
  4. Secretagogue-specific effects of interleukin-1 on gastric acid secretion - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681735/
  5. Mucosal tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and interleukin-8 production in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8036458/
  6. Effect of a Campylobacter pylori protein on acid secretion by parietal cells - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2568521/
  7. H. Pylori: Is it Contagious? - Healthline - https://www.healthline.com/health/h-pylori-contagious
  8. H. Pylori Transmission and Spread of Infection - https://publichealth.arizona.edu/outreach/health-literacy-awareness/hpylori/transmission
  9. How Low Stomach Acid Contributes to SIBO - by Dr. John Gannage - https://integrative-medicine.ca/low-stomach-acid-sibo/
  10. Hydrogen Sulfide SIBO - https://www.drelenaklimenko.com/hydrogen-sulfide-sibo/
  11. 4 Facts About SIBO the Internet Keeps Getting Wrong - https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2018-06-21/4-facts-about-sibo-the-internet-keeps-getting-wron
  12. Calcium Oxalate Stones - National Kidney Foundation - https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/calcium-oxalate-stone
  13. The Damaging Effects of Oxalates on the Human Body - https://www.urologyofva.net/articles/category/healthy-living/3740469/the-damaging-effects-of-oxalates-on-the-human-body
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