This work with Challen is heating up and getting more and more interesting every day. I'm away from my beloved Wheeling at the moment, but used one of the simple rules of RBTI today to prevent someone going into a seizure. In fact, the person was so disoriented that she thought she had had a seizure and rushed to the bathroom mirror to look for bite marks on her tongue. But there were no bite marks because the vast majority of seizures are incredibly easy to prevent when you know what Challen refers to as, "The rules of the sugar." In fact, not only was this person's seizure prevented, but ten minutes later the splitting headache was gone, there was no sign of disorientation or loss of coordination, and she was talking 90 miles per hour, smiling, and in a good mood.
And that's just how RBTI is. It's impossibly simple, quick, and easy. So much so that no one believes it.
Anyway, got a good interview coming up on Monday with a person who was bedridden with a side of thyroid cancer six months ago and is in great health today after following the guidance of Challen Waychoff. Thought I would torture all you first with something not pertaining to RBTI...
Here is a month-old interview I did with Armi Legge - a pretty remarkable young triathlete, blogger, and podcaster who is only 16 frickin' years old!!! Way ahead of his time this one. Thanks to Armi for doing it. I owe him and arm and a leg. Haha, ya get it?!!! Bet he hasn't heard that one before.
What did you do to prevent the seizure?
ReplyDeleteHaha. Thought you might ask. Spoonful of white sugar under the tongue. Let it dissolve.
ReplyDeleteMigraines, headaches, seizures, mood problems - all kinds of things, are caused by hypoglycemia.
With Challen, the rule of the sugar is if your refractometer reading is slightly low, eat a piece of fruit immediately.
If it is a severe drop below normal, let a spoonful of sugar dissolve under the tongue.
Challen doesn't believe that there's such a thing as a placebo effect. He thinks all the benefits of placebo can be attributed to hypoglycemia prevention from what is given as a placebo - a sugar pill.
I thought this sounded retarded. After seeing how powerful this was today, I feel retarded.
I think Ray Peat uses sugar to stop a migraine. This is all very interesting stuff. Can't wait to learn more.
ReplyDeletePeat's stuff is great, but it lacks the precision used by Challen. Both Peat and I have taken a generalist's approach, and it has major limitations.
ReplyDeleteChallen can get someone's sugar levels in the ideal range in a week or less under close supervision. His refractometer readings hover between 1.4-1.6 most days. People with severe hypoglycemia are very delicate and have to be very careful, as the worse your health is the more dramatic are the fluctuations in blood sugar from high to low one experiences. Everyone experiences a wave-like change in sugar levels when eating. The level of health determines the magnitude of that wave.
Someone following him for months and used to have blackouts daily from hypoglycemia was still struggling even after months. But in person Challen caught the mistake and the refractometer reading never fell below 1.4 - even on the first day (something this person hasn't experienced in months of trying without in-person supervision).
The mistake was simple - drinking water in the afternoon (water is one of the ultimate triggers of hypoglycemia). The person was also "eating too much health food" as Challen put it.
If you want to learn more Mishkam, there will be no shortage of things to learn. The rule of the sugar is one of 2,700 rules that Waychoff has developed.
Fascinating. I can't wait to read more about Challen.
ReplyDeleteMatt-
ReplyDeleteYou've gone Waco. Just sayin...
Remick-
ReplyDeleteI award you 10 points for that, with an additional 25 for being the first to comment on my new profile picture.
Remick - 35
Everybody else - 0
Matt, so with someone who is prone to hypoglycemia that severe, what should they drink instead of water in the evenings? Juice? Special Lemonade? Sugar is a big no no after 1pm with Challen right?
ReplyDeleteOh snap! Award?! *snifle* I want to first thank my producer, who never stopped believing in me... and Jackie.. Tito, Jermaine, Rebbie, Randy.. and...um.. *snif* um..
ReplyDeleteAbout the benefits of sugar as 'placebo:' reminds me of Dr Batman and his suggestion that, while everyone imagines the solute is the key (take these two pills with a glass of water), perhaps much of the benefit of substances comes with the solvent (H2O).
ReplyDeleteAlso, probably disagree somewhat, because I'm imagining placebo effects are observed when substances other than sugar are consumed. But I'm open to sugar having all sorts of great anti-hypoglycemia effects that could explain lots of alleged placebo effects.
Keep on truckin' Matty.
So what the heck does that have to do with chocolate and pork?
ReplyDeleteMatt - it seems possible the epileptic was misdiagnosed. Perhaps she is hypoglycemic. My husband had a twitchy, snorty faint that turned out to be a faint due to an arrhythmia (later confirmed and he has a pacemaker now). The first thing the doc thought was epilepsy, and the neurologist couldn't rule out epilepsy - his brain scan was abnormal (as is often the case with children of epileptics).
ReplyDeleteAlso, it seems possible that Challen is measuring mostly the effects of dehydration. Drinking alcohol causes peeing and dehydration as does sleeping all night and waking with concentrated morning pee.
I'm not saying this isn't interesting...
"About the benefits of sugar as 'placebo:' reminds me of Dr Batman and his suggestion that..."
ReplyDeleteDr Batman! Now that's an awesome name.
madMUHH,
ReplyDeleteFull name is actually Batmanghelidj, but he and otehrs frequently shortened it to Dr Batman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Fereydoon_Batmanghelidj
:-D
Placebo is real. Placebo effects also occur when no substances are used.
ReplyDeleteMATT-
ReplyDeleteDo you know what it means when your urine is more alkaline than your salvia?
Matt,
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting stuff! :)
I am going to try it.
Here is a thought I am trying to reconcile.
Paul Jaminet recently posted on brain infections. He states that while sugar does temporarily give relief of symptoms......it is only feeding the disease. He suggest a ketogenic diet.....and long term antibiotics. He claims this cured him. Of course he isn't speaking of seizures.
What do you think of this theory?
Hmmm, and I wonder what the suggestions are for someone who *never* has a hypoglycemic episode (or has never had one in 5 years of testing up to a dozen times a day or more) - but has to be careful to avoid HYPERglycemic episodes.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Hyperglycemia-
ReplyDeleteDrink more water and don't eat many carbohdyrates or sweets after 2pm. This drops the refractometer reading rapidly. Mine fell from 4.3 to 2.1 in the first week for example, with only a slight drop in dissolved salts - so you know a lot of this can be attributed to a drop in sugar content.
Anonymous Jaminet-
I can't really be bothered with other people's theories right now. Especially not stuff about a ketogenic diet, which is always going to have a lot of systemic negative effects to do along with whatever supposed benefits one derives from it.
Sheila-
I think it means you've got some pluggage going on in your colon. Depends though. It's hard to say definitive things about just one portion of the numbers.
Tyler-
Sprite or ginger ale. Milk with meals. Challen generally discourages drinking much after 3pm.
Key Tones-
ReplyDeleteMost epileptics are misdiagnosed. Seizures are very common. True epiliepsy is exceedingly rare.
Dr. Batman-
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect case in point of the power of actually testing.
Water can be the most helpful and healing of all substances. Challen's business is called "Heavenly Water."
But it is extremely detrimental for hypoglycemics until they can better regulate their sugar. Challen estimates that 25-30% of people he sees have a tendency towards low sugar.
One cannot say that water is healthy or unhealthy. It depends entirely on the person and the situation. This is why giving garden variety diets and health advice will always have its limitations.
Matt, are you using salt?
ReplyDeleteWondering since you had little drop in salt. (above comment)
Also, I have read here on the comments no whole milk? As above comment from you mentions milk with meals. So, must it be skim?
Thanks,
Betty
http://www.brixman.com/REAMS/experimentalchart.htm
ReplyDeleteI've found that site to be really interesting and it's helped me understand this RBTI stuff a whole lot better.
I think of this in the same vein as Traditional Chinese medicine: that is to say, getting the whole picture instead of getting hung up on the details. Though it seems like having the testing equipment is key here -- if you can't check your urine/saliva pH, for example, then taking RBTI any farther seems impossible.
You can understand conceptually how to fret a guitar, but if you don't have any fretting tools, you're going to have a hell of a time getting anything done. That's my understanding of this, anyway.
For now, RRARF and TCM are sufficing for me. I'd like to try RBTI but it isn't in the budget for now, not to mention the investment in time I'd have to take to learn about these things.
I can see how I'm just doing guesswork, though. In TCM, lemon or lime water or raw vinegar with water are all considered tonics to help relieve liver qi stagnation. I can assume I have this via the more subjective means of TCM (which I am), but with RBTI, it seems like it'd be nice to know what my pH levels in my urine/saliva were, and to be able to adjust things according to that.
Because I'm just kind of haphazardly drinking more water and more lemon water. I actually think it's helping, if only because I usually don't drink much water at all, but there's a lack of precision in just squeezing some lemons every once in a while and thinking "this seems like a good idea."
In guitar work, things like dial calipers, radius gauges, machinist rulers and the like are all used extensively. Sometimes I feel like TCM can be like trying to cut a bone saddle for a guitar without a pair of dial calipers. You can get it, but it's a hell of a lot easier when you can take measurements to see exactly where you are (you have to get the width right, literally within two or three thousandths of an inch at the most).
Though that's not taking a shot at TCM. Pretty god damn impressive for people to come up with that system when there wasn't any lab equipment.
Anyway, yeah, this is really interesting stuff, and thanks for sharing. RRARF seems to be on the back burner but I'll say that I've never been more impressed with RRARF as I am lately. The more I learn the more I appreciate really good ideas, and I really think that's one of them.
There are placebo effects from surgeries and all kinds of treatments and sham treatments that have nothing to do with sugar. Sugar pills may be doing more than nothing, sure, and people may not be taking that into account, but if Waycoff really "doesn't believe that there's such a thing as a placebo effect," then that unavoidably moves him further down the continuum toward quackery.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I've missed something here but what are the foods you're supposed to eat on this kind of diet to tweak the ratios?
ReplyDeleteSo are there any thoughts about the sugar vs/ starch question that's been going back and forth here? Or the sucrose vs. fructose? Seems like you're not eating huge volumes of fruit anymore: how differently do you feel as a result?
ReplyDeletePlacebo is real, for a percent of the population. I suspect it's the same people who can be hypnotized. A placebo test at Boston hospital (using saline injections, not sugar pills) found that 20% of the population reported pain relief just as good as morphine. That's about the same percentage of people who can be hypnotized easily at a magician's show. (Or so I hear)
ReplyDeleteRemick,
ReplyDeleteVery nicely done!! :)
Matt,
Funny. But creepy. I'd rather see 'your' face... just sayin'. Anyway, nice save :)
Jib,
I found the brixman.com website to be helpful too. Another good one is the one I referred to in a recent post (pre-Wheeling trip) regarding an interesting interview with Reams (rbti.info). I think someone here mentioned that website recently too. Anyway, it's pretty informative "without all the Jesus" (to quote Wanda Sykes lol). I found it helpful in explaining the different numbers and how they relate to each other.
AS,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the link. Awesome stuff.
Jib,
ReplyDeleteGreat, glad you found it useful :-)
BTW, for anyone who's interested, I forgot to mention that website (rbti.info) is a little tricky to navigate. It's really easy to miss a lot of the information that's there. You have to use the top menu together with the left side menu that then accompanies each page. The links on the left side menu change depending on which page you're on. It's simple to navigate once you figure that out. From the home page, you just start with the next link (The Basics-Beginner Guide) in the top menu-bar - then just go through all links on the left menu before moving on to the next link/page in the top menu. Did ya get all that? lol! It makes more sense when you're at the website :-)
Matt ~
ReplyDeleteYou tagged this post with 'Epilepsy'. Please expand -- was the person mentioned in this post diagnosed with epilepsy?
If so, which type of epilepsy syndrome is it? There are over 40 different types.
What kind/s of seizures were identified in her diagnosis? There are a number of different types. Are we talking petit/grand mal, myoclonic, atonic, etc? All of these have very different symptoms and physiology involved.
Please be clear -- you are suggesting that preventing/halting legitimate epileptic seizures can be accomplished by simply taking a spoonful of white sugar.
If you are instead trying to infer that she does NOT have epilepsy, or was somehow misdiagnosed as epileptic, please clarify that as well. Which is it?
Too-low blood sugar (such as diabetic hypoglycemia) can cause symptoms which mimic legitimate seizures, but are not in fact epilepsy.
Conflating the two is misleading.
It could also prove dangerous to people with true epilepsy (diagnosed or undiagnosed) and alarming/detrimental for those who are hypoglycemic or dealing with blood-sugar rollercoasters.
Taylor/Hobson
Matt ~
ReplyDeleteYou said:
Challen doesn't believe that there's such a thing as a placebo effect.
He completely denies that the placebo effect exists?
He thinks all the benefits of placebo can be attributed to hypoglycemia prevention from what is given as a placebo - a sugar pill.
Uh. He... is aware that 'sugar pill' is usually a figure of speech, right? Placebos (when in the form of pills; there are also placebo injections, surgeries, etc) can be made out of anything considered inert to the trial -- talcum powder, starch, magnesium stearate, binding agents. Olive oil, if dealing with a gel-cap presentation. They're often just the same materials as the real medication, with the active ingredient removed.
Does he believe that all placebo-controlled studies involve actual pills made out of sugar?
Do you consider his position to be scientifically and intellectually sound?
Taylor/Hobson
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ReplyDelete