Good morning 2022-09-13 Reconstruction

 

    My epigenetic time travelling adventures continues.

    I am trying to reconstruct the state that induced age reversal in my epigenetic clock measured by

MyDNAge 20 feb 2021. At that time I was 44 y chronologically, but measured biologically at 39.

5.3 years younger than my chronological age, younger than 93% of people taking the same test.

at 43 y I measured at 40y biologically. 3 Years younger than my chronological age. 83 percentile. July 2020. 

My last result was in july 2022, I was 45 and a half, but measured at 42, so about same as first in terms of delta between chronological and epigenetic age.

The last was the result on a mostly plant based, but not fully, protocol (included occasional fish and shell fish).

However the delta from ketogenic diet with lots of fish and shell fish resulted in an epigenetic age acceleration of twize my chronological age rate, which is remarkably bad!

Note I included clean plant based food pattern that is largely advised by plant based experts such as including protein sources from legumes, nuts and seeds. 

Limited saturated fat and olive oil instead of butter and coconut oil.

I will document these selfstudies in detail in another document.

All in all, the omnivore ketogenic with fish and shellfish protocol worked best for my epigenetic age.

I can't say which protocol worked best comparing between plant based and carnivore.

But I'd say the carnivore protocol worked better. 

Note that I included FMDs in the plant based protocols and that I included water fasting on the carnivore protocol to an equivalent degree.

To compare the two protocols I would need to repeat the experiments more to see how they compare.

But with the current data, it looks most promising for a ketogenic protocol with a solid amount of fish and shellfish.

Also clear is the relative superiority of the ketogenic diet when compared with a low to  low moderate carb plant based protocol, with the reservation that it would need repetitions to be more solid.

However, my intuition tells me that elimination protocols and more minimalistic diet pattern protocols with short nose-to-tail keto-carnivore refeeding protocols may be very efficient as it was that particular pattern that resultet in my epigentic age lowering.

I infact only did the ketogenic fish/shellfish protocol for a shorter while before epigenetic measure before carnivore (maybe little more than 4 months).

So that may indicate that the carnivore diet may have influenced the results more, as I actually spent about 1 and a half year on a really strict keto-carnivore protocol, very high in fat from animal sources daily coupled with early time restricted eating and intermittent 3 day water fasting.

After a while the subjective beneficial effect started to diminish and I gradually switched into the omnivore ketogenic + fish/shellfish protocol.

This pattern and transition together should be considered as well as the 3 years of omnivore ketogenic diet pattern before that (including a bit more fermented dairy and fullfat dairy than the later patterns).

I want to continue with the ketogenic diet and tweak it with respect to parameters that I think matters long term for my goals. Centrally brain health and epigenetic longevity. I think these two parameters matters most to staying cognitively in optimal health and squaring of the mortality curve in particular with regards to neurological health span. These are among  my health goals and I'm willing to accept any marginal trade offs that may or may not be the result of these choices. Among these trade offs and risks are CVD and cancer. However, I keep up to date with nutrition research and scientific knowledge and discussion in these domains as well. It is hard to say, but so far, I don't feel overly worried. I did a heart screening this summer and things looked very good on my last protocol.

I will say. The plant based protocol had some effect on my HRV- heart rate variability, and resting heart rate. Infact I was able to improve it back to the state it was 2019 when I was in optimal physical shape on an omnivore ketogenic pattern.

However I lost muscle strength on the plant centered pattern and I got skin issues.

Also my insulin sensativity decreased, although I consumed foods that should have done the opposite accoding to the research I found. Energy balance or weight was not, from what I could tell a problem, I was at my lowest weight on this pattern. 

I did improve my heart metrics, but I did increase my epigenetic age by double speed, which concerned me. As I believe epigenetic is instrumental in some of the prevention strategies I was to achieve.

So back to the clean ketogenic, animal based protocols.

Yes. I say animal based because the fish and shell fish is animal based although it is marine based as well with focus on choline, DHA and EPA as potential drivers of the epigenetic effects I saw.

Not mentioning the brain effects this should have.

I also included some bone broth. Gut repairing potential. Considering the glutamine, Glycine and proline from the collagen among potential acting ingredients.

Rebuilding the gut lining. Supporting the gut microbiom environment for akkermansia muciniphila and the integrity of the immun system as well as replenishing the pools of amino acids necessary for rebuilding and rejuvenating after the fasts I think are a important part of inducing a longevity phenotype profile.

The daily energy balance and time restricted eating pattern is important.

I find that restricting between 16 and 20 hours is a good baseline to practise as well as moderating energy balance within that to a mild degree.

Sometimes being at very slight energy deficits and sometimes being at slight energy abundance.

The above patterns are popular among popular ancestral eating patterns such as the Evolution diet pattern by Arthur DeVany PhD (economics).

I don't think chronic patterns are evolutionary consistent.

I do believe, on a meta level, that chronic adherence to a seasonal pattern on a loose level will translate to optimized physilogic adaptations to the environment.

However this is very complex and non-trivial in destilling to details and may be done as hypothetical patterns do employ to derive certain effects. Sometimes perhaps not as intuitively as one may think.

I think however, by the principle of Hormesis (ala Edward Calebrese), that a seasonal part of the world of of dynamical depths as here in Scandinavia, lends itself well to the practise of a varied pattern of seasonal practise of cold and heat hormesis, as well as energy and nutritional abundance vs energy and nutritional restrictions. Note the non-chronic nature of the seasonal variability. The amplitude of seasons. Winter and summer seasons in particular means a range of dynamic adaptations need to take place in order for optimised physiologic results to be the case.

This is why I think living in Scandinavia is a priviledge.  You can really practise cold hormesis unless you take full advantage of modern convenience.