This is a continuing story about discovering other methods by which we might all better benefit by reducing our levels of 'Inflammation' at key moments in our MPN journeys etc. Doing so means trying to understand why it happens at all, and trying to adjust our approaches accordingly...
This article is based upon the findings of a couple of Papers that I have provided 'references' to below, however, only the 'Abstracts' are available for reading, unless one pays for a 'subscription' to the Journal.
Nevertheless, enough can be gleaned to understand that our diets, and 'glucose' (sugar) is the real culprit at different times of the healing process, as you will read below.
Hi Steve, I'm well. I hope that you are keepng well too :). I really appreciate all the reseach and information that you put up. I find it really enlightening.
I fast from 7pm until 11am the the next day. It feels like a bit of a swizz because all I'm really doing is not eating breakfast until late but it's easy to do and definitely worth a punt.
Got my first consultant appointment and bloods next Wednesday. If it's not cancelled. Will see then if there is a trend to my platelets going up again. Want to see if I can get my allelle burden because when I asked before I was told it was not recorded it just says whether it was postive or negative. They said they would ask the lab. So bracing myself a bit for this appointment. Brona
Allelle burdens ? Hmmm... yes, I suppose that they can be of interest. Personally, I have never known my own. In Australia, one must ask how we might ascertain 'Allelle burdens' (ABs), as an extra test that might be undertaken etc.
Usually, my understanding for ABs goes something like this: Low frequency ABs 5-10% are seen in ET, much higher ABs in MF c. 50%, and PV usually somewhere in between. But that's just a rough indicator anyways... Apparently, knowing one's AB can or may provide prognostic value for one's ongoing longevity... (?) Here's a brief video clip from Patient Power, that might answer some questions for you, a little(?)
However, I also wondered at one stage, whether knowing or not if one has any other 'High Risk' (HR) mutations, and what that might imply. For example, I now know I have ASXL1+, and that is deemed of a poorer prognostic value, (suggesting a shortened longevity). In my own view, however, I do everything that I can to make myself as healthy as possible, and therein counter balance that HR finding. Knowing I have that HR mutation, does not really aid me, as I also believe that there are far too many unknowns where MPNs are concerned, and the more I inform myself, the more unanswered questions I find that few are able to answer with any real certainty...
Hence, just being as fit & healthy as I can be, and trying to involve myself in every aspect of living as best I can... Makes realising that every colour seems all the brighter... Philosophically speaking Brona... I am still not as yet convinced that I am not an immortal...
Best wishes, and hope your tests go well... But do not focus too much, or be perturbed by any result...
Hello Steve ,really interesting great information...I have noticed so many times how great I have felt when I have fasted .... dealing with inflammation ....I’ve noticed any sugar to me is out .....still monitoring daily heath with food , the less I eat the better I feel ... so eat lots of fruit and veg ... really see how vital a good diet is to health ....don’t know why I’m surprised???
Thanks again , best wishes to you and all of us on this journey...
Yes, really should not be surprising at all, should it? (eating fresh fruit, seafood & veg' etc)
However, I guess that speaks something to how insidious addictions to sugar might be... (?)
However, I agree w/ you completely, the less I eat, the better I feel, always... But, one must make sure that we have enough energy to do the things we like to do too...
Hence, like most things, it is yet another balancing act, in my view...
I find it really interesting that our bodies seek to create harmony within our biology...
Not so surprising either then I suppose, that our minds crave harmony too...
Hi, thanks for bringing this useful discussion. I'm fasting a couple of days/week, very useful for general health.
"Sugar" has very general but different meanings in medicine, biochemistry, food, and other sectors, so sometimes it makes confusion.
All (most?) carbohydrates are converted to sugars in our body. By "sugar" do you mean just white crystal sugar or any food that can be converted and metabolized to sugar in our body? Ex: Are apple and other fruits and potato/rice are considered as sugar in this post? Does "sugar" include all sweet products, such as honey, dates, etc?
I am just another MPN patient who researches these findings for myself, and I endeavour to share some of it along the way.
As you say, it can be confusing... However, in this context, I am really more alluding to anything and everything that might add to our levels of 'Inflammation', & (various types of sugars just being one of them...)
There are a great many foods that we consume, many of the 'Processed' food groups add sugars, (& other sweetening derivatives), to there products to make them more appealing, and hopefully so that we'll come back for more... That's the market paradigm that governs our economically-driven existence, in my view...
The problem for many of us with our MPN conditions, is that we may suffer from greater levels of inflammation, and anything that might reduce or limit that 'Inflammation' for me is most welcome.
However, and all of that said, every person here should refer to their own medical teams for the right advice, in their own case.
In my own, very limited view... All of the sugar groups that occur naturally, are those that are better for us, generally speaking of course... But it's about finding the right balance too.
All of us, are biologically uniquely different in our own bodily chemistry, and each of us might respond differently to a wide variety of food groups...
The preceding threads that were concerned with discussions covering various topics of 'Inflammation' allude to a hypothesis that glucose, (within certain circumstances), can create an almost run-away effect on 'Inflammation'...
Therefore, if you go back through some of those Posts, and cited articles, it might help illuminate how 'sugar' came into the broader conversation (?)
"Feed a cold, starve a fever" ... I had always assumed that this saying meant "A person who has a cold needs feeding but a person who has a fever needs to be starved" (and may well have lost appetite in any case). However, I then heard of an alternative interpretation, along the lines of "Feed a cold [= bad idea, because you will make the illness worse and may then have to] starve a fever".
When digesting a meal, blood needs to go to the small intestine to pick up the nutrients. Presumably this diverts the blood away from its task of delivering the elements of the immune system to the places where they are needed to fight the infection, which perhaps partly explains why some illnesses are accompanied by a short-term loss of appetite?
A few years before her death my mother was diagnosed with a serious illness called "empyema", which we had never heard of before. She lost appetite and her weight fell alarmingly. Someone said that the need to fight the illness would cause Mum to go into the "catabolic" state, in which the body avoids the effort and diversion of digestion by drawing resources from within itself or "feeding off itself", hence the weight loss. During her recovery (a long stay in hospital), when Mum was ready to eat again she had her regular meals supplemented by fortified nutritional drinks to help her build back up to her proper weight.
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