I finished up and posted the results from testing fast-acting histamine for my exercise-induced rhinitis. The antihistamine reduced my rhinitis, but it could be due to preventing a mild allergy or just drying out my nasal passages. All other allergy medicines also reduce mucus production, so I need to figure out another way to distinguish between cold and allergies as a cause. Current leading candidates are saline solution and warm clothing that doesn’t cover my nose.
Also this week, I did an interim analysis of data I’ve been collecting on how my chess puzzle performance is influenced by CO2 levels and health parameters. This one was really interesting, despite not finding any statistically significant results. Specifically, I saw modest effect sizes with close to significant p-values for CO2 levels >600 ppm and BG coefficient of variation. Likely due to chance, but the study was underpowered, so worth collecting more data to see if I can pin down or rule out an effect.
Experiments this week:
- Whole foods: raspberries, blackberries, macadamia nuts, strawberries, black soybeans, celery
- Blood pressure:
- 11/20 runs of the deep breathing study
- 47 measurements testing concordance between two BP meters
- Tracking BP every 30 min. over the course of a day
- Exercise-induced Rhinitis:
- final run and report testing fast-acting antihistamine (blinded, placebo-controlled).
Next week:
- Food effect:
- continued testing of whole foods
- Blood pressure:
- Continuing the deep breathing study; 2 more weeks to finish and analyze.
– QD
Active & Planned Experiments
- Blood Glucose Impact of Low-Carb Foods & Ingredients
- Goal: Determine blood glucose impact of low-carb foods and ingredients
- Approach: Protocol
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Whole foods (vegetables, meats, low-carb fruits)
- Dietary fibers
- Miscellaneous low-carb prepared foods
- Blood Glucose Impact of Supplements
- Goal: Determine blood glucose impact and mechanism of promising supplements
- Approach: Protocol
- Status:
- This week: Initial replication
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Full meal test
- Alternate macronutrients
- Alternate acid sources
- Blood Pressure
- Goal: Identify causes & interventions to improve my elevated blood pressure
- Approach: under development
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Analysis of historical data
- Effect of deep breathing protocols
- Allergies/Breathing
- Goal: Identify causes & interventions to improve my breathing during exercise
- Approach: under development
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Effect of masking and/or saline solution
- Improving Sleep
- Improving Cognition
- Goal: Identify environmental factors & interventions to improve my cognition
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Larger chess puzzle dataset
Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.
– QD
Observations & Data
- Sleep
- Sleep was better than last week, but still bad. I’m consistently waking up 1-1.5 hours earlier than I’d like. Need to figure out how to get this back under control.
- Pulse looks to be stabilizing, but that may be related to the poor sleep.
- HRV up even further, still don’t understand how to interpret this…
- Blood Glucose
- Blood glucose still looking good, but it’s hard to tell with my current metrics. When I get some time, I’m going to switch to using time low & high, rather than just time-in-range.
- Other Blood
- Off-week for hemoglobin and cholesterol.
- Blood pressure continues to be “elevated.” Hopefully my new study will uncover something useful here.
- Body
- Weight and waist are up this week, but that’s largely due to Thanksgiving. We’ll see what next week looks like.
Sleep
Blood Glucose
Other Blood
Body
Methods
- Sleep
- Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
- Methods: Apple watch + Autosleep app
- Frequency: daily
- Blood Glucose
- Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
- Methods: Dexcom G6 CGM
- Frequency: continuous
- Other Blood
- Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
- Methods: scale + Renpho tape measure
- Frequency: daily
- Body
- Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
- Methods: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron Evolve
- Frequency: daily for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol
