Hello Once More!
Alright, so if elevated cytokines and inflammatory markers are the real bugaboos here, how does a person go about checking his or her levels?
One can have his blood drawn and directly determine the cytokine levels. This really isn’t practical and it is rather expensive.
The easier approach and perhaps two birds with one stone method would be to have your high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein levels checked.
This too is done with a blood draw, but it is inexpensive.
High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hCRP) is a pro-inflammatory protein that is released by the liver when a person is inflamed.
If the levels are elevated, you are inflamed. But what’s also cool about hCRP is that it mirrors cytokine levels. So if hCRP is elevated, so are cytokines.
According to Dr. Seaman, a normal hCRP is less than 1 mg/L. Between 1 and 3 mg/L is considered mild inflammation, and levels above 3 mg/L are reflective of moderate to high inflammation. The average middle-aged American is around 1.5 mg/L while 25% of the US population is over 3 mg/L.
Basically, the higher the hCRP levels, the worse the outcome will be if that person becomes injured or infected.
In addition to anti-inflammatory goals, Dr. Seaman says that fasting glucose levels should be well below 100mg/dL, fasting triglycerides below 90 mg/dL and HDL levels above 50mg/dL for women and well above 40 mg/dL for men.
He further states that these levels will “… essentially guarantee that a cold, flu or coronavirus infection will be a mild or a somewhat annoying experience rather than a life-threatening event.”
Man, that sounds so much more hopeful than the nonsense we are being told.
If you were interested, in our office we have a blood scan machine that can help us determine the number of these blood levels in less than 5 minutes and with a simple finger stick. Amazing.
In addition to this, we have another machine that can determine the thickness of your cell walls, percentages of lean muscle mass and fat, and hydration levels. No blood and it too takes 5 minutes and can help us determine a program for you to reduce your markers into the healthy range if need be.
Unfortunately, the FDA has not approved the cartridges necessary to determine hCRP levels with our blood scan machine, but this can easily be done with an inexpensive panel at our lab.
In blogs where I lay a lot of heavy stuff on you to think about, I try to keep them shorter, and so this will be the end of this week’s blog.
Next week we will discuss the DeFlame Diet and the necessary supplements you will need to reduce inflammation, blood levels of cholesterols and triglycerides, glucose, high sensitivity C-Reactive Proteins, and cytokines.
If you can’t wait, we have Dr. Seaman’s book in our office for sale, or you can go online and purchase a copy.
It is an excellent book and is written for the guy on the street. It could just save your life or someone you know!
Best Wishes!
Dr. Dave