Use this calculator to interpret your thyroid test results using the functional range and spot potential issues in production and/or conversion of thyroid hormone. The Thyroid produces FT4, the “4” meaning it has 4 molecules of iodine attached to it. It then gets sent through the bloodstream and gets converted, or activated at the site of the organs that need it, by stripping it of one of its iodine molecules, making it FT3. Please note that this calculator is not intended for use in thyroid hormone replacement therapy.
An optimal result would be FT3 and FT4 both in the 45-55% range. If FT4 percentage is lower than FT3 percentage, this can point towards an issue with production of thyroid hormone. Possible causes include low intake of iodine and selenium. A lower percentage of FT3 could mean FT4 is not sufficiently converted to FT3. Consider getting a reverse-T3 blood test in this case.
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If you want to learn more about your thyroid function and how it might be impacting your ability to heal from PKD, considerbooking a free 15 minute call to see if health coaching is right for you.
This website has its roots in a facebook group I founded way back in 2016 as my personal refuge – I founded it because it was the only place where I could tell people about the amazing results I was seeing with the bulletproof diet and my PKD. Back in 2015 I was getting thrown out of all of the major social media groups for telling people there was something they could do about their polycystic kidney disease besides standard polycystic kidney disease treatment with tolvaptan and blood pressure medication. Since then the group has transformed into one of the largest groups on Facebook and it is growing by the day. Scientists have finally started looking at a ketogenic diet for polycystic kidney disease seriously, and others have jumped on the bandwagon and are shouting it from the rooftops – keto works. But it is not just keto that is important.
There are caveats to any style of eating, and strict keto can be an issue for many people. This is why we are looking beyond keto, towards bulletproof, with its much more specific approach including intermittent fasting, meat quality and carb refeeds, as well as avoiding not just oxalates but also lectins and phytates. All of this is important to keep reversing PKD as we need to keep hormones and pH in balance while removing as many toxins as we possibly can. At the same time we need to keep the kidney stocked up with essential amino acids from high-quality proteins, so function doesn’t deteriorate and the kidney actually has the raw materials to rebuild. Many of these aspects are still widely unknown and I will keep bringing them forward to help everyone improve – and reverse their PKD.
But this post is more than a reminder of what Reversing PKD is about, it is also one to celebrate the successes that we have seen over the years. I have compiled a sort of best-of of our members posting about their own improvements.
If you have PKD, you are reading this and aren’t doing a clean ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and carb-refeeds, avoiding antinutrients wherever possible and minding your pH levels- Use this as inspiration to get on the bandwagon, if you have not already. 😉
A very short statistical analysis of the 21 reports about GFR on my facebook group has resulted in an average reported GFR increase of almost 17 points over an average of 354 days, so roughly a year. Keep in mind that many of those reports are short term and could well have gone up further over time if people stay with the program. Also, not all members are adhering to all the recommendations, so these results might even be an underrepresentation of what is possible.
150ml MCT Oil/Avocado Oil (You can substitute up to 50ml Olive oil to save money, more makes it too bitter)
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1-2 pinches of salt
This, my friends, is a game changer! Are you tired of not being able to get good quality mayo? Always reading about sunflower and canola oil in the ingredients lists, but have no patience to make your own?
Well, fear not! This recipe is for you. Delicious, simple mayo made in one minute or less! Yeah, thats right. Oh, and, its made from MCT oil, so your ketones will get a hefty bump, too.
INSTRUCTIONS
Add everything to a tall cup, use a stick blender to first blend everything fully at the bottom, then sloooowly pull up on the blender until everything has that gorgeous creamy mayo consistency. Makes about 200ml give or take. Enjoy with sweet potato fries, brussels sprouts, boiled eggs, grassfed beef sausage,…
Yesterday I had the pleasure of making some more of my fabled Curcumin capsules. Details below. You can check out the recipe video I made a while ago here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvPpC6J3La8 (This recipe is 15x cheaper than NovaSOL.) Since the topic of Curcumin supplementation has gained so much traction here, I wanted to quickly talk about it again here.
We know, that in conjunction with Ginkgo B., Curcumin has potent effects on cyst growth so naturally it would be a great supplement to choose. The only problem is reaching adequate blood levels, which is tricky since it is a large molecule that doesnt easily penetrate the gut barrier.We can help it get through with several methods. A crude method is using Piperine, also Bioperine or Black Pepper, which basically opens up the gut lining and gives the user temporary “leaky gut”, letting curcumin through in small amounts, but also letting other nasty stuff penetrate into our blood stream like toxins, endotoxins, food particles and bacteria, which can worsen infections or even theoretically increase cyst growth since endotoxin seem to play a big role in triggering cyst growth.There are newer and more sophisticated methods of making curcumin bioavailable using chemicals that bind to it on one side and can bind to water on the other, making it water-soluble. That is key for optimal absorption of curcumin.We also need it to be “enteric coated”, which means it is encapsulated by HPMC, which will only dissolve in the gut, preventing disintegration in the stomach.
The two products i used to recommend the most were CurcuWin and NovaSol Based Curcumin formulations since both have a very high bioavailability. However, my most recent research has uncovered that NovaSOL’s Polysorbate-80 and CurcuWin’s PVP (Polyvinylpyrrolidone) are questionable compounds. Polysorbate-80 opens the tight junctions just as black pepper does, or even worse- and Polyvinylpyrrolidone is a synthetic polymer that has some research showing carcinogenicity in rodents. Hence, I am now recommending you use Theracurmin or Longvida, which have slightly lower bioavailability than these products, but they do so without highly questionable ingredients. Theracurmin works by using a nano-sized curcumin, while Longvida uses a Lipid encapsulation. Longvida has better studies for brain effects, while Theracurmin seems better suited for whole-body applications. Blood levels also seem to rise more with dosage than for Longvida. Now, you could buy and use these products, no problem. But if you want more curcumin for your money, I have discovered an awesome recipe that gives an unbelievable value, unmatched solubility and, to top it all off, no weird chemicals as well as 5.3x higher potency than NovaSOL even.
I call it “Black Sludge”. It’s a recipe by Brad Culkin, who is a multiple patent-holding chemist and developed it for his own use- and for his family.It is a little more involved to make but you can get so much more out of it than by buying the standard products, financially but also dose-wise and even from a chemicals standpoint.
Thats it! Much cleaner than the other formulations. No Pepper, No Polysorbate-80 or PVP, no weird stuff.160mg of Water-soluble and thereby maximally bioavailable curcumin in one capsule! You can actually see the difference between Black Sludge and NovaSOL in this picture. The darker it is, the more curcumin is dissolved in the mixture. Our Product is so dark its practically black. But if you dip it in water, you can see that it is a beautiful, transparent, deep red. No weaksauce You can check out the recipe video I made a while ago here:
PS: You can use an FFP2 mask instead of the respirators we use here. Makes things a lot easier. Also, remember to wear glasses to protect mucous membranes in the eyes.The steam can irritate so if you notice anything, please stop, ventilate and reassess.
Or: Why you should switch your default search engine NOW.
This page is all about finding unconventional health information, and for that it is vital that we get access to every bit of info thats out there, not just what is regarded mainstream. In 2019, Google signed a contract with mutliple governments to “limit the spread of misinformation” and since that day, the tech giant has begun censoring health information. Facebook signed that same contract so, when I tried to link the following article there, it had made the previous version of this post “disappear” right after posting it.
So I am writing this post, for the second time. How ironic.
The biggest alternative health site, in 2019 after signing of the contract logged an over 90%-drop in traffic from google, and now is down to zero. Search results that were once top-ten are now nowhere to be found on the engine. I have been using the alternative search engine duckduckgo.com for some time now and it has been a good experience. Whenever I need something that it is not showing me, I can still resort to google, which is totally fine.
But you should never again rely on google if you want to find out the truth about something regarding health, which has become all the more important in the past year, or politics even. The tech giants are controlling your information sources, and thereby your opinions. This is not okay. And we need to stop it in our own homes first. Here is a quick tutorial how to change the default search engine on your devices.
A couple of months ago I went to a Lindt chocolate factory outlet and couldn‘t resist buying a couple of really high quality bars that did however contain an appreciable amount of sugar. I found two of those bars lying around my house recently and decided that it was time to indulge on one of my carb days. I‘ve been known to gain quite a lot of weight whenever consuming even smaller amounts of sugary carbohydrate. So I bit the bullet and ate almost a whole bar of chocolate and yes, the next day I saw the expected weight gain of about 1.5 pounds. Jeez!
I decided to eat the other bar the next day so that I would not be tempted again in the future and my weight loss will not be further impaired. On this day I also tried a couple new supplements. I ate the rest of the bar from the day before plus a whole new bar and went to bed fearing the scale for the next day. In the morning to my total surprise I had not gained any weight. I was totally flabbergasted and immediately tried to find out what caused this change. After a little bit of thinking I remembered that I had taken some kind of chromium which I read about in the context of improving blood sugar levels and I was curious if that might‘ve been the cause. So, in the name of science, I bought yet another chocolate bar and did another experiment. I opened it in the evening, popped a capsule and started eating it. To my total surprise, after about two thirds of the bar were gone I was satisfied and the thought of eating the rest of the bar was not very appealing to me. That was a striking difference as I normally always have to restrain myself to be able to leave part of the bar on the table.
The next day, I had actually lost a little weight. The experiment was a success!
Of course I‘m not the first person to discover these effects even though I‘m pretty shocked that I only find out about this now.
In the 1970s, researchers discovered that giving brewers yeast to diabetic mice produced resensitization to insulin and dramatic improvement of their diabetes. It was later discovered that a certain molecule in the Yeast that also contained chromium was responsible for the beneficial effects.
Since then there have been many efforts to isolate this molecule. Past efforts have resulted in the naming of something called GTF, which stands for glucose tolerance factor. Another attempt at naming the substance was Chromodulin or LMWCr, which stands for low-molecular-weight chromium-binding substance. However, the exact structure of the molecule still remained elusive up until 2016. Arakawa et al. Were finally able to isolate the molecule and describe its structure, which is comprised of Glutamic acid (4), Aspartic acid (1) and Glycine (2). This small peptide has the ability to bind to chromium very effectively and at multiple sites.
While the human body produces its own Chromodulin whenever the building blocks are present, especially the glycine contained within the molecule has become rare in human diets. Most notably bone broth or collagen supplements are good sources. However, the necessary chromium to bind to it and make it active can be hard to come by these days. One out of four Americans over the age of 50 essentially have no detectable chromium in their body, the same goes for basically all patients dying of atherosclerosis. Let me say that again, so it really sinks in. Essentiall all Atherosclerotic deaths are related to chromium deficiency. This was even tested in rats. No chromium equals plaques. Chromium supplementation equals no plaques.
Our societal chromium deficiency can be either the result of insufficient intake or a high rate of urinary excretion. So what does Chromodulin actually do and why do we lose it?
Whenever we eat carbohydrate or otherwise want to utilize glucose in our cells, we need insulin. And insulin, without the help of Chromodulin is heavily impaired in its function. When Chromodulin is present, it potentiates Insulins effects- and gets used up and excreted in the process. More Carbs = more Chromodulin usage. Once it gets used up it is excreted and Insulin stops working efficiently – so I gain weight. When enough Chromodulin is present, Insulin works efficiently. This is the reason why diabetic rats saw such a profound effect.
The terms GTF and Chromodulin are used synonymously.
For PKD this means we can use Chromodulin to our advantage and appreciably lower our blood sugar on ketogenic and especially on carb days. This could have a double effect on your carb days since you can utilize them better for their actual intended functions such as HPA axis and hormone rebalancing- and lower cyst promoting blood glucose in the process. Since your cells can now utilize carbs correctly, you will feel more satisfied – which will drastically reduce carbohydrate cravings. But that‘s not all, Chromodulin has actually been shown to lower triglycerides, LDL and circulating fatty acids showing that it helps cells to metabolize all fuel, not just glucose. This is great news for increasing overall health. Lower triglycerides will move us away from inflammation and that is something that we can all benefit from.
So, first and foremost we should make sure to consume adequate amounts of glycine in the form of collagen or bone broth and also make sure our chromium requirements are met. There is no RDA in place for chromium but statistically speaking an average daily intake is somewhere between 50 and 200 µg. Bulletproof High chromium foods include Oysters, egg yolk, liver, kidney and nuts. Some vegetables also have an appreciable chromium content.
Now, looking at this chart I personally should not be needing chromium supplementation since I‘m exceeding the upper end of the range for standard intake on most days. However, production of peptides such as Chromodulin can be dependent on many different factors and for some reason I seem to be benefiting from supplementing with yeast based chromium. I suspect this is because of preformed Chromodulin through the fermentation process but it is also possible that just the increased amount of chromium available to me is the reason for the effect. I for one will keep supplementing with yeast based chromium on many days, especially when I eat carbohydrates. The ability to actually use them for energy and not immediately store them as fat is a very liberating concept. Who knows what other benefits this will have in the long term.
Now, chromium is excreted through the kidneys and if function is impaired this can be an issue. Chromium supplementation has been shown to be very beneficial for the kidneys in diabetic mice. However, there are three case reports of renal dysfunction secondary to chromium picolinate supplementation. Two of the three cases supplemented many times over the upper range. (They took between 600 and 2400mcg per day for months on end) Keep in mind that this form of chromium does not contain the essential component which is the Chromodulin peptide. One of these cases was tested and had chromium blood levels three times over the upper limit which was consistent with his high intake.
So as always, proceed with caution, check for interactions with your medications and see what works best for you. If you want to try Chromodulin, it is not sold explicitly as a supplement but there are some brands that sells „Chromium GTF in a Yeast matrix“ and I believe this also contains Chromodulin since this molecule is produced in yeast fermentation.
Did you know that the types of fat you choose to eat on a daily basis have a distinct impact on your metabolism- and thereby on PKD progression?
Our mitochondria are the power plants in our cells and they are responsible for keeping us running with energy. It is their metabolism that converts glucose or ketones into ATP, which is what our actual cells need to function. In PKD kidneys this metabolism is impaired, which is part of the reason for cyst growth.
In a 2020 study, Italian researchers examined in detail the mitochondria of a mouse model of PKD. What they noticed were several alterations “including reduced mitochondrial mass, altered structure and fragmentation”. Also, they found reduced expression of the proteins responsible for mitochondrial fusion, fusion being the process by which the fragmentation can be rescued.
So, this means, the power plants in our kidneys are broken into smaller pieces, and the pieces themselves also don’t quite look like they should, which in biology means they also don’t work as they should. In cell biology, structure equals function. So, one question the patient might ask is, how can we induce mitochondrial fusion? How do we get these disparate smaller mitochondria to bond together again and give us a more efficient and healthy metabolism? And more importantly, how can we do it safely with diet and without medication?
One Very Interesting Way to induce mitochondrial fusion is the consumption of stearic acid. What is stearic acid? It’s about 10% of butter, 25-30% of suet and up to 35% of cocoa butter. It’s also used in soap and candles. So, it is one of the main constituents of healthy dietary saturated fats. This gives us one more reason to choose carefully which fats we consume, since other, less healthy vegetable oils such as soybean oil for example have been connected with mitochondrial dysfunction.
So please, pay attention. Don’t assume your favorite restaurant will not be drowning your food in vegetable oils. Don’t assume your salad dressing will not contain canola oil, don’t assume your burger was not fried in soybean or sunflower oil. If you eat out, try to think, where could they have hidden those bad oils? Because they are out to make a buck and cheap vegetable oils for sure are one way to make a lot of profit- and to get you satiated very quickly for pennies. At the restaurant, ask to have your steak or burger fried in butter. Tell them you’ll have a seizure if you eat vegetable oil if necessary, so they don’t try to dupe you. Instead of mitochondrial destruction, you will be promoting mitochondrial fusion, and with that a healthier kidney. It’s a simple change, but it makes a big difference.
It’s also not just about the stearic acid content of any given fat that you eat, but it’s also about the ratio of long chain saturated fats to unsaturated fats. Brad Marshall has compiled an awesome table for us to compare different fats:
Stearic Acid content and ratios of different fats. Source: Brad Marshall
You want a high ratio and also a high stearic acid content. So Tallow (represented here by wild elk) and cocoa butter start to look pretty appealing!
Brad has developed something else that is pretty interesting. In a 2012 dissertation he read about an experiment that was done on a group of mice, in which the mice were either fed standard chow, chow enriched with oleic acid and chow enriched with stearic Acid. The enriched diets contained about 40% of these fats. Interestingly, the stearic acid group gained the most muscle and was the leanest. Using this as a template, he developed what he calls the “croissant diet”.
Don’t get me wrong, this diet is in no way suitable for PKD since it is very high in carbohydrates and we have a specific problem here that does not react well to this. But in the process of developing this croissant-centered diet he came up with a product he calls stearic acid enhanced butter oil. You can find it in the table above as well. And you can make it at home. Using grass fed butter of course. If you have ever made your own ghee, you know what to do. It’s pretty simple. If you haven’t, here is a link for a simple recipe at the bottom of this post.
when you’re just about done with the recipe and everything is nice and hot, for every 8 ounces of grass-fed butter you would add 55 g of pure stearic acid to the pot and dissolve it with the rest. You can now use your stearic acid enhanced ghee for everything you would usually use ghee or butter for. If this is too much for you, you can also just throw about 5 g of stearic acid into your bulletproof coffee in the morning, provided you are using about 20 g of butter. (Aiming for that same 27% stearic acid content) Or sprinkle it into your pan when you’re cooking, and let it dissolve right in. If you’re curious where to buy purified stearic acid, it does exist on Amazon, however, buyer beware! Most sellers don’t list the purity of the product and is not unusual to be 60% or less. This is not a risk that we can take. So, for now it is best to buy it from reputable chemical suppliers that list the purity of the product. If it says 100%, its not true. Anything above 90% is acceptable if it is food grade.
One example would the product from the company carl roth. Link below.
it’s 98% pure and from a reputable company. There is no affiliation.
But, I hear you saying: Felix, I’m not starting to eat pellets from a chemical company on a regular basis! Really? Isn’t that pretty much what a supplement is?
If you’re still not convinced, I hear you.
So what are some other steps we could be taking to increase our intake of stearic acid? We could be adding chunks of cocoa butter to our bulletproof coffee, which i am doing at this very moment. Roughly a 1:1 mixture of butter and cocoa butter will give you about 22% stearic acid which is not bad. We could buy suet, which is kidney fat, from grass fed cows and render it at home to use in cooking. Just put it into a bowl in the oven on a low temperature for a long time. This stuff has a whopping 25-30% Stearic acid content and can be had pretty cheaply if you are in good contact with the farmer. Do you think it might be a good idea to consume parts of a healthy kidney if you want a healthy kidney? ?
Other tallow from beef will still give you around 20% stearic acid. We could also limit our intake of Linoleic acid, which displaces stearic acid in our fat cells and gives those fat cells the signal to grow. I havent found any research on this in connection to PKD, but any growing signals should be avoided wherever possible if you ask me, especially when its unhealthy growth like tumors, cysts – or fat cells. We dont want any of these to grow, do we? So check your cronometer the next time you make a meal and see how much linoleic vs stearic acid you just consumed. The less linoleic and the more stearic, the better. As a rough guideline you can look at beef tallow, which is under 3% linoleic acid and around 20% stearic acid, which gives a ratio of about 1:7 linoleic to stearic acid.
If you want to learn even more about stearic acid and its benefits, I can highly recommend this short podcast:
I for one am ordering a kilogram of the 98% stearic acid and will start to add this to my coffee and foods for the near future. I will also take some suet in my next grass fed beef order. I will be very interested to see if there are immediate weight loss effects or even long-term effects on energy or cyst growth. However, since I’m combining so many strategies it’s never possible to tell which one worked, but the most important thing is progress by whatever means necessary.
I hope I could motivate you today to try something new and keep reversing PKD.
So, this is new. Deterium is a heavy Isotope of water, also called heavy water. In excess, it destroys our mitochondria, kind of like throwing a brick into a washing machine. (Ever saw that video? :-D) Its just too heavy. Deuterium occurs naturally in all water. The deuterium content of our oceans has increased from ~135 ppm to ~155 ppm in the last 10.000 years. Depleting one’s body of deuterium by eating a high – fat diet like bulletproof and adding to that a drink of deuterium depleted water, has resulted in some very good recovery of cancers. (remember, PKD is VERY similar to cancer in most ways) And since we are not adding some new supplement, but taking something out that shouldn’t even be there, I am very interested. So for everyone who wants to do a deep dive into the topic, here is a detailed podcast about it.
How does FAT help us make DDW? Like a camel, we can use fat: “When fat is metabolised to release energy, the carbon and hydrogen atoms combine with oxygen to form CO2 and water. Fat is a mixture of hydrocarbons. Each gram of fat broken down in this way releases just over a gram of water.” – Luis Villazon The hydrogens we get from good fats are already Deuterium depleted, since the plants do it for us.
What I personally do now is ordering DDW (Deuterium Depleted Water) at 10-25 ppm online and diluting that with 2 parts of filtered water or spring water. I then drink only this water for about 2 months per year. I might do the test thats offered on ddcenters.com afterwards. The goal is to get ones own body below 130 ppm.
Now here’s some hot news for all of us. Turns out consuming MCT oil (like one would in their daily bulletproof coffee, or drizzled on meals) dampens the effect of endotoxin on the body. What does this mean for us? It means that if I am correct in assuming that endotoxin is directly triggering cyst growth, regular consumption of MCT oil should reduce endotoxin, or at least its inflammatory effects (which are mediated through triggering TNFalpha).
And this, in turn, would be yet another powerful way to reduce cyst growth for us PKD patients. I am consuming MCT oil daily since day 1 and now there is another impactful reason to keep on doing it. Easiest way to do it? Start drinking bulletproof coffee tomorrowwhile doing a 16/8 intermittent fasting regimen. Yes, you drink it in the 16 hours you’re fasting. And no, you cant skimp on the beans or butter. Butter needs to be grass-fed, beans need to be tested mold-free, MCT oil needs to be at least 70% C8 and preferably from a glass bottle. Recipe? See me make it on YouTube.
For everyone wanting to get into a good supplement regimen, here is my basic program, by popular demand. Please note that everybody is different, and needs and dosages may vary quite a bit for you.
Vitamin D – *1000IU per 25 pounds of body weight* Vitamin K2 MK7 *(all trans)* *at least 200mcg*
Combination: https://amzn.to/38b2HWX
Vitamin E *400 IU (mixed tocopherols or tocotrienols. No synthetic forms. Read label closely.)* https://amzn.to/2vg0U4N
Vitamin A *At least 10.000 IU from retinol (not retinyl palmitate, not beta carotene. Possibly higher dosage, very individual)* https://amzn.to/2OIKYyP
Vitamin B Complex -*Coenzymated forms.* https://amzn.to/2OEJrKk
Chromium – *500mcg* https://amzn.to/37gdFti
Iodine – *Around 1-3mg daily, from Lugol’s solution, always with selenium* *(1 drop a day or every other day, see how you feel, check thyroid levels- FT3, FT4, TSH)* https://amzn.to/38dSPfr
Selenium – *(L-Selenomethionine) 200mcg* https://amzn.to/38f0fPJ
Zinc & Copper – *15mg zinc + 1mg copper (15:1 ratio)* https://amzn.to/2SxfX1R Omega 3 – *At least 1000mg of combined DHA&EPA* *(can go much higher. Get Omega 6:3 Index tested in blood at least every year and adjust dosage to get 4:1 – 1:1 ratio)* https://amzn.to/38azM5M
Extra B12 & Folate *Methylcobalamin form for most people. Has to be taken with folate, not folic acid. 5-MTHF form.* *5000mcg Methylcobalamin with 800mcg 5-MTHF.* https://amzn.to/2ScqxfWhttps://amzn.to/379FXWl
EVENING
Mercola Autophagy Tea Alternative: Activated Coconut Charcoal (dont take with other supplements, this one will mop up toxins from your gut, but nutrients, too.) https://amzn.to/2uqmwLR Autophagy Tea Recipe
I don’t currently endorse taking a ketone product, but if you want to try it, I recommend trying an ester form, because the salt load on the kidneys is not a good long term solution. KetoneAid and HVMN are the two companies selling esters at the time of this post.
KetoneAid seems most affordable as of now: https://amzn.to/38d8GuM
The links are affiliate Links and may support this page to some extent in the future, you are of course welcome to search for the product names yourselves if you don’t agree with that.
Please ask questions if you are not sure about a product. Of course you dont have to or even should do/take everything.
You can check out the recipe video I made a while ago here:
