I love the discussion that this news item starts. I love the argument from the GP in this movie. She says that a B12 deficiency can present in so many ways that it’s hard to diagnose.

Which makes me believe that measuring B12 should actually be made easier.

Since B12 deficiency is also related to lifestyle factors (diet, laughing gas, age, etc…) I think we should be measuring it more in everyone, not only the groups where we expect B12 deficiency. If we only measure it in these groups, statistics about who is at risk for B12 deficiency get skewed. The group of symptomatic people in which we aren’t measuring B12 might hide some B12 deficiency we aren’t seeing.

Although the title is rather negative, I’m glad it gets some attention!

@Naveed Aslam,

Just like fasting insulin, reverse T3 also isn’t a lab value traditionally measured. fT3 (free T3) is often only measured in patients who use thyroid medication to see if the medication is working.

On the day of the blood draw, you might want to keep this in mind if you like to check the values measured!

@Rhondine sorrell

I think they mean the GSTM1 gene. You’re missing it.

Don’t worry too much about that. A lot of people are missing it. That doesn’t mean you can’t be healthy.

It just means that lifestyle choices like avoiding smoking, avoiding alcohol… avoiding toxins in general and prioritizing foods that help with detoxification (Cruciferous vegetables and vegetables in the onion family) will be wiser lifestyle choices for you.

Hey @Rhondine sorrell,

First of all, I’m reading what you’ve been through and I’m so sorry to hear that all this has been on your path.

IT’S. A. LOT!

For the moment, I’m going to focus on some ‘high ticket’ stuff in your labs.

Low White Blood Cells (WBC)
I can’t tell how recent your labs concerning your white & red blood cells are, but your WBC and RBC count at the time of the blood draw were pretty low. I’ll list some possible reasons why your WBC could be low. This doesn’t mean you have them, but it is good to keep some stuff in the back of your mind:

Low serum levels of vitamin D (and other nutrients that are needed to produce white blood cells like zinc, vitamin A and B vitamins)

Some Infections can cause low WBC

Some medications

Thyroid conditions

Autoimmune conditions

Alcohol consumption

Low Red Blood Cells (RBC)
I’ve mentioned low RBC above. In your labs, I can see evidence of low iron. For example, most of the iron in the body is used to produce haemoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen through the body. Your labs show that you’ve got low haemoglobin.

Low iron can cause:

Fatigue (even if you’ve slept 8 hours!)

Tingling sensations (neuropathy), like you are describing

Hear loss

It can influence thyroid function which can cause feelings of depression (and a low WBC remember?)

Shortness of breath

Pale skin

Poor appetite

Unusual cravings for non-nutritive substances, such as ice, dirt or starch

Cold hands and feet

Inflammation or soreness of your tongue

Brittle nails

I’m listing all these things. Perhaps you recognize some other symptoms. Did your doctors mention the low haemoglobin? And if so, did they measure your serum iron as well?

Toxicity Panel

From your DNA test, we can see your ability to detox is not the best. Does that mean you can’t be healthy? No. But in your case, you might be a bit more sensitive to toxins and a tox-free lifestyle will benefit you.

What stands out to me is that you’ve got high levels of iron in your toxicity report.

“But one paragraph ago I was low in Iron!”, I can hear you think

I know this sounds weird. It could be the moment when you took the test. Supplements can contain Iron for example. 65 supplements could contain a lot of iron. If this lab was taken after you’ve been taking the supplements, some of the measured metals & element values could become high. Therefore we need to know:

When was the toxic metals/elements panel measured compared to you taking your supplements? When was the low haemoglobin measured compared to you taking your supplements?

As you can see, labs need context. Perhaps you can Copy & Paste the next questions into a reply and answer these questions in a response:

What supplements were you taking? And what labs were drawn after taking these supplements?
You don’t need to list all the 65 supplements, just the ones you were taking.

Are you on any other medications than that you mentioned?

How would you describe your diet? (Is it plant-based? How much is self-cooked vs processed? Do you eat organic? Everything that comes to mind!)

Was your gallbladder removed? (This could be a reason why your vitamin D wouldn’t come up)

When was your DUTCH test measured? On what day of your cycle?

There is more to tell about all these labs, but let’s discuss this step by step!

@Rhondine sorrell Hey @Rhondine, to help you better, can you tell us when all your labs were taken? It will help us to know in what period the labs were taken!

Hey @Sheetal Ramchandani,

The brand Solary tests its supplements quite extensively (just check here if you’re interested). I think it’s a good choice!

@Naveed Aslam I know TUDCA can help improve digestion and it would be a supplement that could have multiple benefits.

To answer your question about TUDCA related to cholesterol: The short answer is yes, research shows it can contribute to lowering cholesterol. But there is a ‘but’!

… understanding what elevates your cholesterol is key!

If your HDL is elevated because the body is using it as an antioxidant, would you like to drop HDL? Or would you like to lower free radicals?

If you like to lower LDL it would be a slightly different discussion. Cholesterol gets secreted through bile in the gut. A lot of the cholesterol is reuptaken by the gut and a part is secreted through the stool. TUDCA is a bile acid and could help promote the excretion of cholesterol through the stool. That could be beneficial as a temporary solution.

However, TUDCA might not address the reason why LDL cholesterol is elevated.

You could try it as a band-aid while you try to work on lifestyle factors that might increase your cholesterol.

@Naveed Aslam I see the differences, but these labs are already a bit older and still miss the lab value reverse T3.

For understanding the new thyroid numbers context matters as well. At the moment of blood drawn, how were you feeling? Did you feel sick? What are your current serum iron values?

Is there more physical or emotional stress in your life than at your previous labs?

All these factors can influence your current fT3 levels. You might want to watch this movie about low T3 levels and this one about low T4 levels to dive a little deeper into other reasons why these numbers can drop.

@Naveed Aslam the benefit of liquid supplements is that you can adjust the dosage easily. You could spread one dosage over 2 meals for example and see how you react to that.

@Naveed Aslam that’s one of the reasons why Thyroid Balance course exists: to help you understand how the thyroid works and how to test it so you can make informed decisions. Unfortunately in most places, you will have to order labs through the websites of laboratories like Dotor’s Data and True Health Labs.

If you feel like ordering a comprehensive thyroid panel, True Health Labs has a panel here.

Hey @Naveed Aslam,

I hope you are doing well over there! Even if your labs aren’t comprehensive, they do provide clues!

You can see on your labs that your HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol as it was called for a long time – but we know it’s more complicated than that) is elevated. There are 2 common reasons for elevated HDL. One is a fast thyroid. We can rule that out in your case! Another reason why HDL cholesterol can be elevated is when the body is using HDL as an antioxidant.

This is more likely in your case.

If your body needs more antioxidants, you’re likely dealing with more of the usual production of free radicals. It doesn’t specify the type of free radicals you are dealing with, unfortunately. High HDL is in this case just like a shadow from something going on in the body. Medications, stress, leaky gut, histamine intolerance and high blood sugar can all contribute to free radical formation. But just by looking only at a shadow from a tree you can tell you that there is a tree, but it doesn’t tell you what kind of tree the shadow is from.

I hope that analogy made sense!

Vitamin D
Your vitamin D is perfect! I often recommend my clients to aim at serum levels around 50 ng/ml. The labs you shared use different units: nmol/l. 130 nmol/l is 52 ng/ml and that’s good! I don’t see reasons to adjust your vitamin D supplement. Make sure you aren’t depleted on magnesium though. You need magnesium to convert vitamin D into its final bioactive form in the kidneys.

Since you are experiencing low T3 you could consider in future measuring a full thyroid panel. Bernadette explains what a full thyroid panel should look like right here.

I couldn’t find your previous cholesterol values so fast, unfortunately. Perhaps you could take a look at your previous results and compare the numbers. You’re on the right way if your HDL numbers have dropped.

Hey @Noura Alhomsi,

Personally I’ve never used sea moss, but I could give you some tips. Sea moss contains a lot of nutrients, which is really great. Preferable you would like to have sea moss that is organically grown. A first sign that your supplement is fo better quality is that the bottle should say “Wildcrafted”.

Since good sea moss is wildcrafted, one batch might have a different nutrient composition than another batch, even if you stick to one good quality brand.

A little caution with sea moss. Sea moss is a great source of iodine, but be aware that too much iodine could impact your health as well. Too much iodine (just like iodine deficiency) can cause problems with thyroid health. If you have other sources of iodine in your diet (salts, iodine enriched products including multivitamin supplements!) you might want to reduce consumption of these products.

There might be other brands that are better, but this sea moss product from Codeage is good and is third party tested. The benefit is that it is in capsule form and you won’t need to find recipes to make your sea moss tasty!

Hey @Sara,

I think there is some overlap to the answers to these questions in my answer to your previous post. In the handout I mentioned there, you can find a recipe for “Sole” which is a great source of electrolytes. Coconut water is also a source of electrolytes, although it does contain some natural sugars.

Daily vitamin C can be a great choice to support the immune system. You can find some recommendations in the handout as well.

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend you when it comes to IV drips in Dubai because I’m living in The Netherlands. Perhaps @Bernadette Abraham could recommend something!

I don’t know how long ago you took your antibiotics to treat Pneumonia, but it’s usual to see CRP still elevated after infections. You might be free from the infection, but your body is still recovering and here your immune system plays an important role as well. You can help the body by resolving inflammation. Here vitamin D and the Omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHEA can play a very important role. Tumeric and ginger have also been shown to be anti-inflammatory and are great choices as well.

I usually recommend my clients keep serum vitamin D levels around 50 ng/ml. If your levels are on the lower end of the reference range you can supplement accordingly. The vitamin D handout explains how you could do this (scroll down to find the pdf).

Hey @Sara,

I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you are recovering well!

Since you have been treated with antibiotics, your microbiome can use some love and support. You’re right! Probiotics are a good choice! Foods that contain probiotics are still the best choice I think. Foods that contain probiotics are for example kefir, kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut and beet kvass. The B Better library contains recipes you can use to make these probiotic-rich foods yourself (just click here).

If you like to use supplements, choose a broad-spectrum probiotics formula. Supplements I recommend to my clients are for example Metagenics UltraFlora Biome Pro. A second one I could recommend is a soil-based product called Megaspore by Microbiome Labs.

Since antibiotics do kill bacteria but have a lesser impact on the yeast living in the gut, this yeast could start to overgrow. To prevent this from happening you can combine your probiotics supplement with a supplement that contains the beneficial yeast Saccharomyces Boulardii.

If you have decided to use foods: foods often already contain S. Boulardii, so you don’t have to worry about that.

Be aware that after a round of antibiotics, it can take a few months before balance is restored in the microbiome.

Immune support & coughing remedies
The B Better library also contains a handout full of tips & protocols that you could use (it’s called “B’s Medicine Cabinet Must Haves”). There is a recipe containing honey that could help if you’re still coughing for example. The handout also contains an immune boosting protocol.

I hope these tips help and you’ll feel better soon.

Hey @Bahareh Safapour and @Bernadette Abraham,

Although I have never used the product, I can give you some background information about what they write on their website.

The ingredients in ASEA Redox water are deionized water and sodium chloride. The only place I could find something about their ingredients was on the FAQ page. Although I usually try to keep my opinion out of my posts, but I don’t think this is a great sign.

ASEA Redox water contains the word “Redox”. In chemistry, a redox reaction is a reaction in which electrons move from one atom or molecule to another atom or molecule. Without going too deep into what redox reactions are, you should know they are very common. Examples are iron getting in touch with water causing rust. In fact all rusting metals are examples.

The baking soda test (to get an indication if you produce enough stomach acid), is also a redox reaction. Antioxidants, when they neutralize free radicals, are other examples of redox reactions. When we produce energy in the mitochondria a lot of redox reactions take place as well. The point is: redox reactions are a common type of chemical reactions and are everywhere.

Now let’s take a look at the ingredients: sodium chloride is simply kitchen salt. Deionized water, according to the website, is water free from ions by a method using electricity (electrolysis is the term for this). It is therefore removed from minerals that make water hard (don’t confuse this with water that is free from pollution. Microplastics, BPAs and other toxins that don’t respond to electrolysis). You can make the case that distilled water is cleaner since bacteria and viruses are also cooked out.

Sodium and Chloride ions have the potential to absorb and donate electrons, however… they are two ions that prefer to stay ionized. This is the reason why salt dissolves easily in water. For that reason, they aren’t well suited for many redox reactions.

For a redox reaction, you would like to have molecules or atoms that like to share or receive electrons. Chloride ions (which are negative because they have an electron too much) are really really fond of their extra electron and don’t like to donate them easily. Sodium ions (which have a positive charge because they lost an electron to the chloride) really like to lose one electron and won’t really accept an electron easily. They are therefore very hard to form redox reactions with.

My overall impression of the website is, that the person who wrote the text on the website, wasn’t able to clearly explain how their product works. It sounded sciency, but the explanations didn’t make things more clear to me if I’m being honest. If the ingredients are truly simply deionized water and kitchen salt, I like to have a really solid explanation before buying this product.