I just had my annual blood work done and there were some values that had me concerned. Overall the results were good, and my Levine age was 12 years younger, but some values were out of whack. I’ll list them below. I’ll take advice as to how to improve them. Especially from esteemed members like @DrFraser
However, my HS-CRP value this time is 1.67 vs last year’s 1.59. So it seems it is not a one off from an infection or other temporary issue. I am a bit perplexed as my wife, father and mother as well as many people here have a value of 0.5 or less
Any idea how I can go about tracking down the root cause and lowering this value? Any ideas on how to lower it?
Also note that all values listed in this post are considered ‘Normal’ by LabCorp as they are within reference ranges.
However, I never settle for ‘Normal’ and wish to be ‘Optimal’ so my provider, getHealthspan.com provides further analysis to help show areas where there could be improvement.
I will happily take into consideration any advice that may help me to get these biomarkers into optimal ranges.
(As an aside, my total cholesterol values were also flagged as too low, but I am ignoring those as I disagree.)
I focus on 5 key things (you can find lots of discussion about these across threads in the forum).
Diet - low carbohydrate, no processed foods, healthy fats.
Sleep
Supplements - 3 big ones. Magnesium, D3, Melatonin.
Cold thermogenesis (I use: Coolfatburner.com, but should use it more often).
PEMF - Heals damage and reduces inflammation. I’ve used this to treat injuries and have thought - given what the Set Point Medical device does (see below) - to use it on the vagal nerve. I have one of these: ICES® DigiCeutical® A9 Model System. Also see: Vagal Nerve Stimulation. In part PEMF involves calcium ion movement and magnesium latches on to calcium and move it and out of the cells.
Microbiome rebalancing - Overgrowth of certain bacteria species (e.g., firmicutes) can trigger lots of bad reactions which can become endemic and intractable. Antibiotic use can lead to these imbalances. Search the forum for the approach my GP and I developed to rebalancing the microbiome. I have also significantly upped my daily intact of prebiotic fiber (4 tbs of a mix of 1/3 each psyllium seed husk powder, potato starch, and inulin). I’ve not had much success with probiotics. USC San Diego runs the Microsetta Initiative. For a donation ~$150, it will sequence your microbiome. Can take up to 6 months to get a result. You can get results faster from a for profit company, but most of these just want to sell you “customized” probiotics.
Conjectures
Diet, sleep, supplements, and cold thermogenesis lean more to managing inflammation.
PEMF and microbiome resetting might fix the underlying issue.
Set Point Medical
I started another thread recently on the Set Point Medical device that stimulates the vagal nerve to “reset” the body’s autoimmune response.
IF (big if) this actually works, it could have very broad applications including:
Season allergies
Food allergies
Crohn’s disease
IBS
Wegener’s disease ( Granulomatosis with polyangiitis)
MS
RA
Lupas and maybe
Parkinson’s.
All have autoimmune / inflammatory implications.
At this point one can only get the Set Point Medical device by prescription for RA, but it seems very promising. PEMF might have a similar effect. Not much downside in trying.
Looks like possibly some inflammatory issues. Start checking your temp, just as you do your BP.
Increase exercise is the obvious one.
The Anti-Inflammatory Actions of Exercise Training
But there is another therapy with really good effects, mentioned by the previous poster: cold exposure. Back in the day, there was a lot of exploration of this on the CR Society site (RIP), and it’s pretty remarkable. This is not the cold plunges type stuff. These are cold vests (the kind that go over your shoulder-trap areas), and a disciplined use has huge benefits. The issue is is that it requires quite a bit of discipline and some grit - kinda like exercise. And in some people it has poor efficacy due to small size brown fat depots (issue for many Asians).
And of course the old standby - CR. No need to go full on CR, just cut back a bit on calories, maybe incorporate some fasting.
Were you sick recently? Or did you get the blood drawn after a strenuous workout?
There’s a chance you might be dealing with some kind of acute infection or inflammation. I think the ferritin is elevated as a result of this and not because you have high iron, since your TIBC would be suggestive of normal to low iron.
The free testosterone being so low, despite total testosterone being pretty good for a man your age is perplexing to me.
I would make sure to feel your best and take 48 hours off from moderate-strenuous exercise and then re-test.
I’ve found ibuprofen helpful in lowering hs-CRP—from around 0.7 to below 0.2. What works for me is taking 400mg with food the day before, then 200mg about 4 hours before the blood draw (while fasted), mostly to maximize the anti-inflammatory (low hs-CRP) effect for the test.
I used to take up to 1800mg daily (sometimes without food) for hip pain, which was very effective but eventually led to ulcers. I’ve since switched to glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM, and if taken consistently in larger doses, they’ve been just as effective as the ibuprofen was.
I’m now considering 200mg ibuprofen daily with my largest meal as a way to manage baseline inflammation while minimizing GI risk. Just sharing in case it’s helpful.
“Can lower CRP levels modestly in inflammatory conditions such as arthritis or after surgery. The effect is short-term and depends on dosing and duration.”
But that doesn’t affect the root cause. My CRP has fluctuated widely over the years, so I don’t pay too much attention to one test.
Wait awhile and try again to see if a high reading persists.
Apparently most insurance companies and docs don’t place too much weight on this and usually only prescribe it after seeing some other problems.
I have always had to order my own tests.
I wouldn’t get overly hung up on hsCRP, as there’s too much which can toss it around short term. If you want a better inflammatory marker - and it does seem like your bios indicate some underlying inflammatory state - then you should measure your IL-6.
@DeStrider if were you, I wouldn’t wait a year to re-test. I think something weird was going on at the time of the blood draw and if not, I’d want to know what’s causing these numbers. Another reason I see high inflammation is your AST/ALT are elevated but your GGT is not.
After reading @CronosTempi’s comment on CR, it occurred to me that you might want to consider doing a few rounds of Prolon as it apparently can lower crp.
Now, does it do this from the magical things happening through the fast or potential weight loss, I do not know. But, it’s one of those things that can offer many health benefits.
Chronic inflammation, may be bacterial infection, mild liver disfunction, iron deficiency (ferritin could be falsely elevated due to inflammation)? I would redo the test. May be have Rapa break?
