Dietary Changes & Results from Bloodwork…

This past Thursday I met Dr. Amy from Hippocrates at Conway Regional to undergo a series of tests, basically we sent like 50 vials of my blood around the world. While there are some tests we don’t have the results back from yet, such as the Nutreval, we did get some results back from Conway Regional. Obviously just getting started I didn’t expect to hear a whole lot of good things back from Amy on this test. Long story short, I have what’s called Subclinical Hyperthyroidism, yeah, I’d never heard of that one before either… basically this is what WebMD has to say about it: People with subclinical hyperthyroidism have a greater chance of having some of the more serious problems related to hyperthyroidism such as heart and bone problems. But experts do not know whether the benefits of treating subclinical hyperthyroidism outweigh the risks. For this reason, if you have subclinical hyperthyroidism, your doctor may just watch you closely. This is what she’s going to do, just keep an eye on it for now. I’m cool w/ that, because I haven’t a clue as to how we are going to fix my thyroid (don’t even know where it is w/out Google).

Another interesting result from my blood-work was that my Vitamin D levels are low, Dr. Amy says I’m probably not getting enough sunlight, but we are going to get some vitamin D in my system this week! What I did find interesting is that Vitamin D is actually a hormone… WebMD has this to say about vitamin D: If you shun the sun, suffer from milk allergies, or adhere to a strict vegan diet, you may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency. Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to skin being exposed to sunlight. It is also occurs naturally in a few foods — including some fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks — and in fortified dairy and grain products. I also found some good info on Vitamin D here:

We’ve been taught that Vit­a­min D is the “bone vit­a­min”, but it is really more of a sun hor­mone. The word “vit­a­min” means “some­thing my body needs that I can’t make, so I must get it from the food”. D hor­mone is instead, a chem­i­cal that we make on our skin from sun expo­sure. It is a hor­mone like thy­roid, estro­gen or testos­terone. Using the proper word “hor­mone” reminds us that it affects mul­ti­ple parts of the body and that it is not “extra”. It is essen­tial to every cell in the body and it is not in the food. It is sup­ple­mented in milk but as a cup of milk has only 100 IU of vit­a­min D you would have to drink 100 cups of milk a day to keep from being D deficient.

Lastly, we also learned that my T Levels (testosterone) are also low… we have known this for a while. This is actually something we’ve treated in the past but since bringing Spencer into our home I’ve stopped using it because it’s somewhat dangerous if transferred, and I’m obviously not going to not hug on and wrestle my kiddo. Fortunately though, Dr. Amy has another form of testosterone that is in pellet form that goes under the skin and has been proven to have some wonderful results. No word yet on when we will start those treatments but I know a lot of you guys over 40 are watching all of this closely, I’ll keep you posted –hopefully I won’t grow antlers!!

Daily Exercise Routine…

I’ve also been advised by Dr. Amy to start doing some form of exercise daily, I’m anxious to get my bike down and give that another try, but it can be as simple as walking in the mornings or in the afternoon each day around the neighborhood. Needless to say that since “lack of exercise” has a lot to do w/ my current status, it only makes sense that it’s part of the solution, so stay tuned for gratuitous pics of my routines on Facebook, etc.

Dietary Changes…

One of the cool things about Hippocrates and Dr. Amy is how much attention is actually paid toward me and the approach. The other day we went to breakfast and Amy pointed out several things wrong w/ my breakfast (never go to breakfast w/ your doctor). Honestly I’m learning as I go so I’m sure I’m going to make a lot of dietary mistakes a long the way, for instance, I’ve always thought that low-carb was low-carb, and that was okay. Well, for me as a diabetic, low carb is good, but I have to monitor my fat intake as well, something I haven’t been doing. Needless to say I’m doing that now. Also, I’ve been learning about digestive health… I can honestly say that we brought the first Greek Yogurt into our house that’s ever been in our refrigerator the other day. It took a little getting used to but now yogurt and kefir are both a part of our daily regimen (and once you get used to it, it’s kinda good). Your taste buds regenerate every 12 days, so theoretically you could learn to eat poo… if you had to. Fortunately Kefir and Yogurt as a snack hasn’t been too painful.

That’s all for this week, stay tuned for more as we continue this medical makeover journey!!