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APOE 3/4 Gene and Recommended Low Fat Diet


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Good Afternoon,

 

I had completed a Whole 30 a year and a half ago and became very frustrated while following a Paleo lifestyle. I had adopted the practices in the book, maybe having a few slip-ups here and there. I was doing Crossfit and eating in a Paleo fashion. I continued to increase in weight and finally gave up on Paleo. After I had thrown in the towel, I went for genetic testing. I was told that my blood panel showed great results. No high blood pressure, great cholesterol levels, so on and so on, BUT, and here's the big BUT my doctor stated based on my genotype of APOE 3/4 I was predisposed for Alzheimers and that I also was unable to process fats like other people. He stated I needed to follow a low-fat diet and needed to increase my cardio. Everything I've followed for the past year has been the opposite. I still have not adopted a low-fat lifestyle or increase cardio, but am at my wits end. I also suffer from excema and Endometriosis. But am more concerened with being told to eat low-fat since the paleo approach to eating is anything but low-fat. Any insight would be greatly appreciated as I'm thinking of venturing on another Whole 30.

 

Thanks again,

 

Laura Jeanne Penrod

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Sorry that you didn't find the results you were looking for with Paleo. When our gut is out of whack we can have a hard time digesting whole foods and fats. I know that eczema is an auto immune condition. It is possible that you need to follow an auto immune protocol or GAPS or FODMAPS protocol to heal your gut. It's possible that you have SIBO or Candida overgrowth. Both of these conditions can cause immune symptoms until they are healed. Here are some links to some experts that may point you in the right direction for better health and wellness. There is a free gut webenar tomorrow at 5:00 pm Pacific time. You might want to sign up. if you can't listen to it live, they will email you the recording so you can watch it anytime. https://seancroxton.leadpages.net/freegutwebinar/.   http://www.amymyersmd.com/2014/12/02/what-i-learned-from-interviewing-39-experts-in-autoimmunity/.  http://www.siboinfo.com/.

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What exactly does "low fat" and "high cardio" mean in this context? I haven't had any genetic testing done, but I know that my body responds best on the lower end of the template when it comes to fats and when I get at least 20 minutes of burst training at least three times a week in addition to my yoga, tabata drills, and walking as much as possible. I wouldn't define it as low fat and high cardio, but it might look that way to paleo die-hards on one end of the spectrum and a Western-trained MD treating a sedentary SAD patient at the other end of the spectrum.

 

Bottom line: I think you can increase cardio and reduce fat while remaining paleo if not Whole30--perhaps making yourself healthier and without driving yourself insane.

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I started reading on the topic of APOE and found 4 interesting articles pretty quick. The first is from Mark's Daily Apple and reflects a primal/ancestral health viewpoint. The second advises maybe the opposite of what your doctor said. I did not read the whole thing, but it is definitely interesting. The others are short and basically just general knowledge from reliable sources. 

 

I don't know what you should do, but I think what LadyM said makes a lot of sense. Personally, I am suspicious of anyone who advises a low-fat, low cholesterol approach, but what works for the average person might not work for you. 

 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/apoe4-allele-jet-lag-tedx-paleo-debunking-cough-drops/#axzz3KmgWxyJ8

 

http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/alzheimers_statins.html

 

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1787482-overview

 

https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/care-centers/alzheimers/patient-information/memory-dementia/genetics-alzheimes-disease

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  • APOE ε2 is relatively rare and may provide some protection against the disease. If Alzheimer's disease occurs in a person with this allele, it develops later in life than it would in someone with the APOE ε4 gene.
  • APOE ε3, the most common allele, is believed to play a neutral role in the disease—neither decreasing nor increasing risk.
  • APOE ε4 is present in about 25 to 30 percent of the population and in about 40 percent of all people with late-onset Alzheimer's. People who develop Alzheimer's are more likely to have an APOE ε4 allele than people who do not develop the disease.

Dozens of studies have confirmed that the APOE ε4 allele increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's, but how that happens is not yet understood. These studies also help explain some of the variation in the age at which Alzheimer's disease develops, as people who inherit one or two APOE ε4 alleles tend to develop the disease at an earlier age than those who do not have any APOE ε4 alleles.

APOE ε4 is called a risk-factor gene because it increases a person's risk of developing the disease. However, inheriting an APOE ε4 allele does not mean that a person will definitely develop Alzheimer's. Some people with one or two APOE ε4 alleles never get the disease, and others who develop Alzheimer's do not have any APOE ε4 alleles.

Using a relatively new approach called genome-wide association study (GWAS), researchers have identified a number of genes in addition to APOE ε4 that may increase a person's risk for late-onset Alzheimer's, including BIN1, CLU, PICALM, and CR1. Finding genetic risk factors like these helps scientists better understand how Alzheimer's disease develops and identify possible treatments to study.

Genetic Testing

Although a blood test can identify which APOE alleles a person has, it cannot predict who will or will not develop Alzheimer's disease. It is unlikely that genetic testing will ever be able to predict the disease with 100 percent accuracy because too many other factors may influence its development and progression.

At present, APOE testing is used in research settings to identify study participants who may have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. This knowledge helps scientists look for early brain changes in participants and compare the effectiveness of treatments for people with different APOE profiles. Most researchers believe that APOE testing is useful for studying Alzheimer's disease risk in large groups of people but not for determining any one person's specific risk.

In doctors' offices and other clinical settings, genetic testing is used for people with a family history of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. However, it is not generally recommended for people at risk of late-onset Alzheimer's.

 

http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/alzheimers_statins.html

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Thank you for all the advice. Lady M, I feel that I fall in to a similar braket like you. I have to watch my fat intake and do more hiit than the average person. I always tend to lose body fat if I am doing Hiit and eating well. I feel that when I did my previous whole30 I was eating too many fats and probably was a little too liberal. All the advice makes sense. Thank you for the feedback.

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You're very welcome, LJ. I've done four W30s without losing pounds or inches and I finally figured out that I was being WAY too liberal with fats for my particular body. I feel like I did my body a whole lot of good with all the W30ing and I've retrained my tastebuds for the better . . . and now I know how to tweak it to serve fat loss for me. Each of us is individual in this regard, and it can be incredibly frustrating to stand by and observe others dropping huge amounts of weight seemingly effortlessly while working our tails off seemingly doing everything right. 

 

(I can tell you that after a year and a half of doing W30/W9 I am finally seeing some consistent fat loss results. What has worked for me is sticking to the template, 2-3 meals a day with no snacks, sticking to leaner meats, eating fat on the lower end of the template, and in addition to tons of greens, allowing myself to eat plenty of starchy carbs--something I'd needlessly restricted at one time. I've also more or less cut out nuts and excess coconut, wanton mayo and avocado. I realized that I fed my fat tooth while starving my sweet tooth. I think it was all part of a necessary process and evolution, so I'm not mad about it . . . but anyway. Now ghee is my main added fat, and when I eat eggs I tend not to add extra fat. I'm not saying this is what will work for you, but I think it can be helpful to see a model of what's worked for someone else who has struggled. Success stories are wonderful, and yet the OTT ones can be discouraging for those of us for whom the prize still seems so dang far off despite our best efforts!)

 

I say keep tweaking for your particular body. Don't throw in the towel. You CAN get healthier and slimmer using the brilliantly simple template and working out the way your body needs. Please keep us posted!

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I'd do some N+1 experiments with tweaking and track your results. Get some baseline tests done, so you have something to measure against.

Don't change too many things at once or it's hard to tell what's having the best/worst impact, some changes might take more than a week for your body to adapt to. Autoimmune takes much longer than a few weeks, if you need to take that into account. If you don't want to try a full AIP, going nightshade free or egg free (or even egg white free) has been beneficial to some.

Hidden allergies/reactions & hormones can be a factor in inhibited weight loss. Some normal paleo items can be triggers and not all are obvious or very strong reactions. Some people are allergic to avocado (latex allergy), so if you find there's things you do better without, might be worth seeing if the others in the "family" have similar effects.

 

If Alzheimers is a risk factor, there's quite a lot of recommendations (2014) on reducing risk:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/24/sugar-brain-function.aspx

 

Lower fat might work for you (low fat doesn't have to be fat free), but it could also be kinds of fat (egg yolk vs avocado vs duck fat vs olive oil - different nutrition). Monitoring protein levels may also make a difference for you as excess protein can be converted into sugar within the body.

Lower fat can imply higher carb levels, which may not be ideal for Alzeimers risk, as it's linked to blood sugar levels, but plenty of greens would help balance that out and you may need extra carbs for HIIT cardio (make good use of your Pre/Post Workout meals). 

 

Cardio can also inhibit weight loss for some, as it raises cortisol and other stress hormones. If cortisol needs managing, later in the day workouts are better as cortisol is naturally lower then. Adrenal fatigue is another factor to watch for.

 

If you haven't had any hormone testing done, this would good to include in a baseline, as would any APOE risk factors.

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  • 6 months later...

I have discovered I am in a similar boat to Laura, APOE4.  

 

I had hoped my Whole30 would give me excellent bloodwork - but it was only OK with some major trouble spots.  Evidently, I cannot process saturated fats very well, so my cooking exclusively with coconut seems to have been an error...  My Dr recommended I adopt a 55% carb, 20% fat, 25% protein diet...  I was hoping I could slowly adapt to a ketogenic diet, but that won't happen anywhere close to those numbers.

 

With my blood pressure issues - I'm kind of looking at low-fat, low-salt paleo with very minimal sugar...  I kind of feel like I'm supposed to blend skinless chicken breasts with cauliflower into a smoothie and call it a day here...  Reading Laura and Lady M's posts give me some direction...  but its disappointing to hear I can't cook myself to wellness with the Well Fed books & exercise alone.  

 

For anyone interested in exploring some of this with or without the help of a Dr  - I recommend this:

 

get your DNA tested at 23andme.com  - $99

 

after 3 or so weeks it will be complete - then submit your downloaded genome to :  www.nutrahacker.com -  its about $50 for their supplement recommendation and likely pharmaceutical interaction list.  

 

They will examine your DNA for all major mutations - MTHFR, APOE, etc.  This is best done *with* a Dr's supervision - - some of the terms are very technica.  This provided a ton of insight into some of my deeper health mysteries that have eluded me for years.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's worth trying some different fats to see what works best for you. 

 

What kind of trouble spots did you have in your bloodwork?

 

Anyone with APOE, I recommend reading this summary as it has a bit of explanation as to what it is (including the APOE variants):

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/apoe4-allele-jet-lag-tedx-paleo-debunking-cough-drops/

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