I started working with Dr. Clemens and the International Center for Medical and Nutritional Intervention on September 8. They do require you to start with some lab results. I had worked with them a year ago, but gave up a bit too quickly. For this reason, they did not require me to get another baseline of blood work. My numbers were pretty close to normal in almost all categories and my symptoms were rare, but troublesome!
On the first consultation, we reviewed the diet and the reasoning for certain aspects of the diet. Last time, the emphasis on how bad dairy was hadn’t been relayed to me. I kept it in my diet and didn’t see immediate improvement. So, what did I do? I gave up pretty quickly.
This time, I was ready to commit. I had a seizure a week earlier and just didn’t want to go back on medication. I knew that I could obtain seizure freedom with the ketogenic diet because I had in the past, but as I near menopause and my hormones change, I have experienced a few seizures near period.
Blood Testing
Dr. Clemens required a ton of blood tests. I think I missed 2 of the ones that she requested, but I got the most important ones! I ordered Ulta Lab’s Complete Wellness profile with the vitamin D profile and TSH level.
First off, let me put it out there, I am NOT an expert in blood test results. All I know is that the numbers are within the normal reference range!
Cholesterol Levels
There are a few tests that are outside the reference range. The Cholesterol is at 239 and the normal range ends at 200. This is somewhat expected as I was eating A LOT of fat and cholesterol. There are people in the ketogenic community that believe that the ranges for cholesterol are wrong. So, Dr. Clemens was not concerned about the cholesterol numbers
TSH Numbers
My TSH is where I see the most improvement. I had been diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 13. My TSH was always around 5.2. Just above the normal range. I had been doing keto on and off for the last year and a half. In March, my TSH had dropped to 3.97 – just within the normal range. After these 3 weeks on the Paleo Ketogenic diet, my numbers were in the middle of the normal range at 2.80.
I’m thrilled about this. This means that my thyroid is functioning properly. While I never had the typical Hashimoto’s symptoms, it feels great to have my numbers match.
Vitamin D Levels
This was the biggest disappointment, but I’m not sure you can see a huge difference for your vitamin D levels in 3 weeks. What does puzzle me a bit is that I made an effort to get out in the sunshine mid-day most of the time. Before the three weeks started, I had been eating sardines and salmon to get in my vitamin D.
My vitamin D levels are at 29, which is just below the reference range starting at 30. When I tested my levels in December 2018, I was at 28.7. So, this was not a lot of improvement.
My plan is to continue with this diet for another eight weeks and then retest my vitamin D levels. I may get the other levels checked as well, but I’m not too worried about them.
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my 3 week ketogenic diet results. They weren’t earth shattering, but the numbers are slowly but surely moving in the right direction!