Pills, pills, pills: What's in them?

Well, I purchased the supplements the doctor ordered today. Not going to list the meaningless brand names, but here are the active ingredients in them.  I note a couple items are double-covered, but we're almost a factor of 10 below dangerous levels for B6, and factor of 100 for B5.  I am going to lay off the multivitamin and the Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc.  I should probably pick up some plain calcium to replace the latter with.  I'm going to work up to the Vitamin D levels slowly given my previous poor experience with high levels of D3.

Supplement/Drug	Amount	DV
Riboflavin	10 mg	588%
Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCl)	25 mg	1250%
Pantothenic Acid (as D-calcium pantothenate)	50 mg	500%
Raw Adrenal Concentrate (bovine)	80 mg	*
para-Aminobenzoic Acid (PABA)	25 mg
EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid)	330 mg	**
DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid)	170 mg	**
Other Omega-3 Fatty Acids	60 mg	**
Palmitoleic Acid	105 mg	**
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)	240 mg	400%
Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCl)	100 mg	5000%
Pantothenic Acid (as D-calcium pantothenate) (vitamin B5)	500 mg	5000%
Magnesium (as magnesium oxide)	75 mg	19%
Citrus Bioflavonoid Complex	100 mg
Protease	104,000 USP units	*
Amylase	104,000 USP units	*
Lipase	16,640 USP units
Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM®
Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07
Zinc (as zinc arginate† and zinc glycinate†)	20 mg	133%
Vitamin D	5000 IU	1250%

Mini Mackerel-Pumpkin Quiche

I went to a social occasion this weekend, and brought way too much smoked fish which I came home with.  The fish is rather salty and needs something to pare it down.  I also purchased about a half a ton of pumpkins from a stand closing up shop at the end of the season (for the sheep).  Among those pumpkins were some little acorn squash sized ones I thought might make decent lunch bases.  Thirdly, I now have chickens and am starting to explore more uses of eggs in preparation for the oversupply I expect in summer.  As a result I came up with this unlikely lunch.

1/2 pumpkin, seeded
1-2 Tablespoons of peppers and onions, chopped (leftover in the freezer from a previous lunch)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Sprinkle of salt (probably didn't need that)
Microwave for 2 minutes
3-4 Tablespoons of shredded smoked Mackerel
1 egg
Remember when adding the egg that it is only nominally a liquid and may try to run entirely off the top of the pumpkin and escape if you don't quickly mix it in.  Perhaps next time I'll break the egg first and then add the solid ingredients.
Microwave for 5 minutes.

I'm not entirely sold on this preparation.  The edges of the egg were done way before the center.  Perhaps a stir after the first minute or two?  Also with no milk or separate bowl for beating the egg, it came out much less smooth than a normal quiche.  The little pumpkin itself has a spaghetti squash like texture, and may do well with some sort of sauce. An acorn squash has a smoother texture and might do better with this.  The squash releases moisture as it cooks, so it's a bit difficult to see when the egg is done, if the moisture is uncooked egg or pumpkin juice.

I'm not entirely giving up on the concept of pumpkin shelled quiche though, I'm going to try a larger pumpkin, in the oven, with italian sausage, peppers and onions, and the eggs properly blended before baking.

Health Blogging as a Diagnostic Tool

I know hardly anyone reads my blog.  I've got one family member that comments occasionally, occasionally I strike a nerve with someone that has a similar issue or a religious stance on my diet.  But overall most of the hits on my blog are indexing robots.

I'm ok with that.

I will continue blogging even if I have nobody listening.  If it annoys people perhaps I'll turn off all the social plugins that announce the fact that I'm blogging.  But the most valuable part of blogging is the search tool.  Before I started this blog I had a user group that I discussed many of my health issues with, which is also searchable.

Yesterday, my Dr. proscribed a high level of Vitamin D for me.  I recalled vaguely that I'd tried that before and had a negative reaction, but wasn't able to say what time of year it was or what dose I'd been taking.  So when I got home I went to my blog and my old usergroup and did a search.  I was able to update the doc with a lot more detail:

I looked up my records, I previously tried 4000 IU vitamin D in late May 2011.  I was getting a lot of fatigue, sleeping in, needing caffeine to function.  (I don't make a regular habit of caffeine.)  I stuck with the regimen for over a week, and then backed down to 1000 IU.  I was not yet on the Paleo diet at that time.  I was also taking K2 and Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc at the time.

Another time I was able to look back through my records and discover when I started moving from a low carb diet to a ketogenic diet, and line it up with symptom patterns.  My commentary on two meals with similar macronutrient profiles was staggeringly different over time.  Lots of habits drift over time, and only by blogging minutia am I able to pick up on what exactly happened.

Doctors have encouraged health logs for a long time when tracking down obscure problems.  I encourage you to do the same, either in a paper journal, a private blog, or a public blog like my own.  The public blog has the downside of muting some TMI info that I might write in a private log but not a public one, but the occasional feedback is also an incentive to keep it up regularly.  To each their own on that one...

Pills and more Pills

For three years I've been off the prescription muscle relaxants and pain killers, and doing better than ever before.

Today my test results came back.

Low adrenal function.
Borderline Vitamin D3
Possible low pancreas function
Low Zinc
High inflammatory markers
Slightly high cholesterol, but favorable HDL/LDL ratio.
Thyroid looks ok, but she suspects that may test differently when adrenal function is fixed.

The doc has 8 new supplements/medications for me to take, at 4 periods during the day.  :(  I'm gonna get one of those big pill organizers.  This better work...