You almost certainly cannot get cancer.
You are doing what Otto Warburg recommended (http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/02/03/otto_warburg_cancer_and_oxygen.htm and http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Loxygen2.htm) and even if you didn't, Lugol's causes apoptosis in cancer cells.

I wish I had as much faith as you, but experience causes me to believe that nothing related to the health and wellbeing of the human body is for certain.   The best we can hope for is to find ways to tip the odds in our favor.

Lex

Not sure where to go with the Immunocal/glutathione thing.  If I start taking Immunocal it will make the iodine test worthless, and if I were to continue with the iodine while taking Immunocal the iodine would make the Immunocal test worthless as well.  Just too many variables, and even if the results were good there would be no way to determine what protocol did what.

At this time I'm leaning towards continuing with the iodine protocol for at least 6 months and then possibly get an updated PSA test to see if there was any beneficial effect.  I'm also interested to see if there is any improvement in BPH symptoms from the iodine protocol alone.  If I see improvement then I may stick with the iodine protocol for a while and see where it leads.  If there is no improvement or things worsen, especially after 1 year, then Immunocal or something like it may be the next thing to try.

Thoughts?

Lex

William,
I read about the possible issue with taking Vit C at the same time as iodine, however, there is some controversy about this.  Some say that in theory you shouldn't do it.  Others say that they've seen no difference one way or the other in patients actually following the iodine protocol.

In my case, I have a butter broth drink in the morning followed by my afternoon meal about 8 hours later. These are the only two times that I can take supplements with food which all of the supplements, including the iodine, recommed.  If I separate the vitamin C, then I'd have to take it by itself.

Guess a little more research is in order,

Lex

Made it through day 2 of the Iodine adventure without problem.  No signs of detox or other issues.

This morning's basal temperature was 97.2.  I think it is way to early to attribute this rise to iodine intake.  I find that my morning temperature varies depending on the room temperature and how well covered I am.  If I only have a sheet over me then temperature is often lower than if I have a light blanket - depending on room temperature of course.

I was up only 2 times last night.  Again I doubt that iodine had anything to do with this as on occasion I only get up once even though my average is 3-4.  It all depends on what I ate and how much I had to drink and how close my fluid intake was to bed time.

For basal temp and nightly trips to the restroom, it will be the long term average that counts as any given day may vary widely.  The big goal is to lower PSA and it will be next year at this time before we know how successful this has been.

Bright neon yellow urine from the the B vitamins.

Found some Lugol's solution for about 1/3 the price of J.Crows.  It seems that people that have saltwater aquariums use Lugol's to keep their coral healthy.  Kent Marine's 5% Lugol's has a street price of about $9 USD/oz (30ml).  It is clearly labled "Not for human consumption" but the listed ingredients are only distilled water, potassium iodide, and elemental iodine.  This is exactly the same as J.Crows.  The only thing I can think is that J.Crows probably uses USP pharmaceutical grade chemicals and Kent's may use an industrial grade which doesn't have such tight purity specifications.  Not sure how much this would matter as any impurities should be very small on the order of less than 0.1%.

Thoughts?

Lex

Day one is in the can.  Nothing momentous to report.  No side effects but it is early in the game.  I expect that it may take a few days for side effects to show up, if they are going too.  If all is well after a week or so, then I'll up the dose as the goal is to get to 100mg/day.

This morning's basal temp was 96.7

Up 4 times last night to use the restroom.  This depends on how much I drink in the hours before going to bed.  Since the kidney stone incident I decided that getting up every 2-3 hours to urinate was better than risking a kidney stone so I usually drink 32 oz (1 liter) of water a couple of hours before going to bed.  It will be interesting to see if this improves on the iodine protocol.

Urine is bright yellow from the B vitamins, but that was expected.

I'm looking for a less expensive source for Lugol's.  J.Crows is about $25 USD/ oz. (30ml) for their 5% solution.  There are a couple of chemical suppliers on the web that supply labs and they are selling 500ml (about 16oz) of 5% Lugol's for the same $25.  With the restrictions here in the US, I don't know if I'll be able to purchase from the chemical supply houses, but I think it is worth a call to find out.

Lex

OK, I’ve done a good bit of research (thank you for the links to get me started William), and have decided to try a basic iodine protocol for two main reasons:

1.   My PSA is rising and it is only a matter of time before my doctor and healthcare provider will want to do major intervention with powerful drugs with nasty side effects, and/or physical cutting and hacking, again with nasty side effects.  There seems to be some evidence that iodine supplementation at high levels can have a positive effect without long term side effects.

2.   In the research info there was some good indication that once the body has absorbed as much iodine as it can, it will discard the excess through the kidneys and urinary tract.  Since I have a well documented history of urinary tract infections, and iodine is well documented as an antibacterial agent, might the discarded iodine solve my UTI issues as well.

I’ll be following the same protocol that William says he’s following (William, let me know if I get something incorrect below), with a few minor changes.  In reading about starting iodine supplementation it seems that as iodine displaces other elements, these displaced elements (toxins?) can create some problems like rashes, headaches, etc.  The recommendation is that you slowly build up iodine intake over several months.  Also in my research I ran across a couple of people that just jumped in with both feet and toughed it out.  I’m an all or nothing type of person so I’ll be starting high.  The recommendation is 6mg or less per day for the first week, adding an additional 6mg/day each week until you reach 100mg/day.  I’m going to start at 50mg/day and move up from there to 100mg/day which seems to be where there is a solid measurable therapeutic effect.  At 50mg/day it is said to take 6 months to reach iodine saturation but at 100mg/day it might only take 6-8 weeks.  Things are rather fuzzy as there is really little actual objective research that I can find but lots of anecdotal evidence.  Anyway, my goal is to get to the therapeutic level as fast as possible.  If there are a few unpleasant side effects along the way, so be it.

Next, it appears that supplementation with several co-factors are critical to success.  Again, not much in the way of objective peer reviewed research, but the anecdotal evidence is rather strong.  I’ll be taking the following supplements:

50mg/day Iodine as 5% Lugol’s solution (split 25mg in morning butter drink & 25mg in water at main meal)

200mcg/day Selenium as L-Selenomethionine (at main meal)

400mg/day Magnesium as Magnesium Glycinate (at main meal)

2,000mg/day Vitamin C as Calcium Ascorbate Ester C (split morning and main meal)

100mg/day Riboflavin (B2) (at main meal)

500mg/day Niacin (B3) as inositol hexanicotinate (at main meal)

There are several forms of iodine and it appears that the body needs two different types to get full effect.  The thyroid gland needs potassium iodide, but most other organs and cells need elemental iodine.  There are two commercial sources for the appropriate mixture of these two forms of Iodine: Lugol’s Solution which is a liquid, and Iodoral which is a solid pill form of Lugol’s with the same proportions of elemental iodine to potassium iodide.  There is a good bit of debate of which form is better and from what I can determine there is no clear winner.  Some swear by Lugol’s and others Iodoral, but from a cost perspective old fashioned Lugol’s wins hand’s down at less than half the cost of Iodoral.  I’ll be using Lugol’s.

It also seems that Lugol’s works better when the liquid it is mixed with is acidic.  To accomplish this I’ll be adding a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to my morning drink with Lugol’s as well as some vinegar to the water with Lugol’s that I’ll be consuming with my daily afternoon meal. 

The acidic water, magnesium, selenium, and high levels of Vit C seem to be critical to the success of the iodine protocol, at least from empirical and anecdotal evidence.  The need for the B vitamins is less clear.  Most people saw significant improvement without the B vitamins, but when they were added there was further improvement for some, especially those with Fibromyalgia.  In my case, I’m going for the whole enchilada and leaving no stone unturned.  I see little risk in adding the Bs and if the entire protocol with the B Vits gives me the best chance of improving my BPH and PSA levels then I’m going for it.  At my age I don’t have a lot of time to waste.

I received my order of Lugol’s and the other supplements today so I’ll be starting this mad hatter adventure tomorrow morning.  Will report as appropriate when something noteworthy happens or changes.

Lex

BTW: It might be useful or more practical to stick the pdf-document to your first post of this journal where all other laboratory values from earlier years are located!?

I PM'd GS and asked him to post the labs to the first Journal entry but apparently he never did it.  Is there a Moderator out there that can copy my lab pdf to the first entry with all the others?

Do you know your thyroid levels? As far as I can see they are not included in your test. Against the background of the recent "safe starches" and thyroid health discussions in low carb circles around Jimmy Moore, Nora Gedgaudas, Ron Rosedale etc. it would be very interesting to see your TSH and fT3 - levels. There is a widespread opinion amongst low carb doctors that long-term zero carbing causes hypothyroidism. Because you feel good I guess that you are definetely not hypothyroid. Your levels could clarify the question if the standard interpretation used by hospitals is wrong in a low carb context, as Ron Rosedale claims.

I think they did TSH and T3/T4 in previous labs and there was no problem.  Danny Roddy says they are the wrong tests but the only tests I can get are the ones my doctor approves.  With no symptoms the docs are reluctant to run expensive tests.  I looked at getting all the tests Danny Roddy recommeded and the full panel was over $1,000.  If I only went for the minimum tests it was still over $600.  Not sure it is worth the cost to do it out of pocket myself - again, since I'm not experienceing any outward problems.  There is the PSA/prostate problem but modern medicine doesn't seem to see a connection between thyroid and prostate issues.  As it was I had to talk like a Dutch Uncle to get the Vit D and C-Reactive Protein tests.

Lex

Thanks William.  I'll  look at getting the supplements you recommend and reading the information at the link you've provided.  It will be interesting to see if there is any effect to PSA and/or change in BPH symptoms a year from now.

Lex

GS,
I've been doing the things you recommend for several years at the suggestion of my old doctor with the exception of eating oysters.  Just don't like the little buggers.  Either hasn't helped, or is part of what is slowing the rate of PSA increase.  No way to tell which.

Hi Lex, been reading your journal on and off, I noted you had periods when you suffered increased weight on ZC,  can you let me know if this is a continuousness trend? i.e first one loses weight, then gains it on ZC? Did you manage to control its? If so, how?

Early in the process of transitioning from a high carb diet to a VLC or ZC diet your body is not very efficient at using fatty acids for fuel.  Cells need high concentrations of mitochondria to use fatty acids as their primary fuel where mitochondria are not needed in as many numbers when using glucose as the primary fuel.  This means that the body is throwing away much of the energy from the fat that has taken the place of the carbs in the diet - so you lose weight.  This gives the appearance that you can eat as much as you want of fat and protein and still lose (or at least not gain) weight and therefore calories don't count when eating VLC or ZC.

Unfortunately this doesn't go on forever.  Once the body fully adapts to using fatty acids as its primary fuel source, the dietary fat can now be used more efficiently for fuel and you'll start to gain weight again.  To keep weight down you must start counting calories again.  This is not difficult as fat is very satisfying so if you only eat until satisfied you'll be fine.  If you insist on stuffing yourself just because you think you can, you'll gain weight.

Most people start to notice this around 1 year to 18 months after starting VLC or ZC.  It is also well documented in the Atkin's diet literature.  People start on Atkin's, lose weight rapidly during the first year or so, and then their weight loss slows or stops altogether, and they will gain weight again if they over eat.

There is no magic in VLC or ZC other than the fact that high levels of dietary fat will satisfy you so it is easier to eat less.  I've also found that if I over eat on highly saturated fat, that some of it passes through undigested making stools pasty, and of course that is energy that never becomes available to the body.

Generally I'm satisfied on 2,000 to 2,500 Kcal/day.  If I eat more than this I gain weight.  Not as much or as fast as when eating a high carb diet, but I will put on weight.

Hope this answers your question.

Lex

I'm not saying it will be awesome in every way, assuming it happens.  We might miss being analog creatures, to a certain degree.

Especially when the power is turned off....

Lex

There's certainly protein in butter, and somehow whipped butter, mayonnaise and similar whipped stuff have the most AGEs.

In thinking this over I have two problems with hysteria over AGEs.

First, the fact that AGEs exist in the presence of pathology does not mean that the AGEs caused the pathology. Just as white blood cells accumulate around an infection does not mean that they caused the infection.  I have seen no research that shows that AGEs are the cause of any specific disease, only that they are present in both healthy and diseased tissues, often with higher concentrations in the diseased tissues.  This can also be said of white blood cells.

Second, what evidence do we have that the AGEs present in our bodies come predominantly from dietary sources?  Research seems to indicate that our bodies manufacture copious amounts of AGEs and free radicals through the basic metabolic processes of life.

Research also shows that every animal, regardless of their diet or environment, accumulates AGEs as they age.  In fact, AGE concentration is often used to determine the biological age of captured wild animals.  This indicates that there is a correlation with AGE concentration and age, but does not prove that AGEs cause aging or pathology.

Lex