AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

SHIT!

I just got a call from the endocrinologist. She said my testosterone level was 815, which "is good", but my red blood cell count is up, which makes the blood thicker, and could cause a stroke. So she’s cutting my prescription in half.

I need to look at my old labs and start reading on red blood cell count and effects. TRT affecting red blood cell count isn’t something I’ve heard of before.

Are strokes correlated with altitude of domicile?

Fuck if I know. Yet.

I looked at my old lab reports. 2016-Dec 22 the RBC (red blood cell) count was normal. One last month at my GP was higher but in the "normal" range. I called the endo’s office and requested a copy of that report again; apparently it fell through the cracks.

When lab reports come in the lab usually helpfully prints a "normal range" column and highlights rows with out-of-range results. The bad thing is, each lab has different ideas of what "normal range" is, and so does every doctor.

I’ve been on TRT for a year and a half, now. If TRT was affecting my RBC, I suspect it would have shown up at least a year ago. The endo didn’t seem to consider any other cause for the high count other than TRT, which didn’t impress me any. I’ll probably have to see my GP again after I get the endo’s lab.

Meanwhile, I’ll read up on red blood cell counts. Arrgh.

I’ve heard of people on carnivore having higher red blood cell count before. The explanation I heard for it, from memory, is that a standard american diet kills red blood cells pretty effectively from the inflammation cycle. So if you’re not killing red blood cells your count goes up. Do you have an RDW and C reactive protein in your blood work? RDW is a measure for the difference in size between red blood cells. A count doesn’t give you this information and a high RDW is associated with bad things.

You’ll definitely need to do your research and now you have all my information the issue

My 5 Year Carnivore Bloodwork - Nutrition With Judy

It’s not unusual for bloodwork when you’re carnivore to look markedly different from someone on SAD but I don’t know any more about this particular marker. Searching on carnivore bloodwork will give you a lot and I know that Paul Saladino has done at least two podcast on his bloodwork that go into some detail.

The web says high RBC can by caused by low oxygen levels.

Altitude - I’m close to sea level.

Congenital heart disease, heart failure - I just got a clean cardio cert.

Nicotine dependence - nonsmoker.

COPD/sleep apnea - my GP says I’ve improved so much over the last few years I no longer meet the standards for CPOD, and while I still use the CPAP machine, the datalog says I only have a few seconds of apnea every couple of days; I probably don’t need the machine any more.

Other low oxygen level - I log SpO2 several times per day. It averages 96 or 97, by day or month. The respiratory guy said it was fine.

Also:

Anabolic steroids and some shady bodybuilder stuff - just the standard 200mg/mo TRT dose.

Leukemia, bone cancer, some types of kidney cancers or tumors.

Liver disease.

Emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis - had a respiratory lab done last year with spirometry; everything was OK then.

Dehydration - I hadn’t drunk anything since the previous evening. But that’s usual for when I have an appointment; it minimizes potential bathroom problems. RBC showed OK then.

Yeah. Why I asked the altitude question. There are loads of people living high up and therefore with more red blood cells. Do they stroke more? Maybe.

Look into the red blood cell longevity thing. I think that’s your key and look into the “lean mass hyper responder” guy who’s name I forget I seem to remember that he’s done a lot on blood and diet.

Enjoy your research. Let us know how it goes.

I’ll follow up on that. I’m not sure I can get the doc to listen, but I can always drop out of ketosis a couple of weeks before a test.

I’ll get back to you on that.

Yeah, it freaks my GP out.

Here are the relevant labs, as far as I know. Sorry they’re in a spreadsheet. It’s old-school Excel format; most spreadsheets can import it. I trimmed what didn’t seem relevant, which came to about half of it.

I only understand part of it; I made it so a doctor could easily follow trends without having to go through a stack of paper or a crapulent ‘patient information system’.

Medical insurance will generally only pay for labs related to a specific complaint, which is why they look so random.

It only goes back to 2016, because the last time I saw a doctor before that was 2004, nineteen years ago.

22? Any 23 bloodwork?

I see your C reactive protein was quite high. If I remember correctly this is an indication of stress in some senses and potentially raising carbs slightly would get rid of it. Short term I don’t think it’s an issue but long term it might go along with tanking hormones. Hard to tell with you because of your TRT.

That’s the first column, 05/03/23. That and the endo last week as my only two doctor visits this year, so far.

My GP has fussed about the high CRP level before; it’s an indicator of kidney failure for someone on a normal diet. It dropped considerably after two weeks of "normal" diet.

I thought he was checking CRP on 05/06; we talked about it, but either he forgot to write the order or his office people dropped the ball again.

I called the endo’s office; a copy of her latest labs should show up early next week. Then I’ll get another appointment with my GP and see what the problem with the RBC might be.

That column is almost blank when I view it.

Erk. I forgot to add the CRP test. It was 9.3. That’s all the blood work they did.

From my notes, the doc took enough blood for a lot more tests, but they were disallowed by my insurance carrier. They allowed a full urine suite, though.

I can upload the full spreadsheet if you want; I trimmed a bunch of stuff I thought was unrelated out, since it’s rather bulky.

AndyJ, if you want the quick hack solution, just go donate blood. It will fix your rbc issue and you’ll help someone else

The endocrinologist mentioned blood donation as a treatment, but was dismissive of the idea. If the upcoming tests show nothing wrong, that’s the most reasonable next step.

But not to the Red Cross. Fuck those bastards and the limousines they got chauffeured in. Among a number of other things, they tried to get me fired once, when they high-fived a deal to use the employees as blood donors without bothering to mention it to anyone until the bosses went around telling everyone to shut down their machines and line up at the truck outside.

Fuck no, assholes. And then the shit hit the fan…

My GP can handle it. If not, it’s only a needle, I can do it myself. I can afford to dump some clean, non-HIV, non-vaxxed blood down the drain every now and then.

I was just interested in the blood results as an indication of what doctors might say and how they might be mislead by your diet.

Spreader makes a good point. That also deals with any excess iron. I don’t the a high RBC count on it’s own is a bad thing in the context of a non-inflammatory diet. It’s always worth remembering that they are comparing you to SAD people and that’s where they get their reference points.