Can MGUS go away: A theory.

I have been thinking about this lately. It definitely seems that there are case studies on the books of MGUS going away. But why? Mostly it seems that the MGUS can go away once an infection subsides. For instance, Hepatitis C or an auto immune disorder. 

But why? 

My best guess would be that clonal plasma cells are called up along with normal cells to fight the problem... only to have the body terminate them once the threat is resolved. Ultimately the problem might not be resolved as eventually MGUS might come back.  We simply don't know. 

So I was thinking about it and it seems to me that one way to avoid the progression of MGUS is to avoid getting any sort of infection and to end your inflammation.

In theory, MGUS is a break down in the Hemotropic Stem Cells. Inflammation causes the Hemotropic Stem Cells to break at a gene that controls differentiation of plasma cells.  Thus, in theory, if your body has need to call up plasma cells to fight an infection... you could be left with Clonal Proliferation which may -- or may not -- die once the infection is gone. 

Further, it seems like if you can end the inflammation that is causing the damage to the Hemotropic Stem Cells... and also NOT GET AN INFECTION... your body may naturally dispose of the MGUS as any new cells will be made from healthy Hemotropic Stem Cells and the Clones cannot necessarily live forever. 

Fasting and Iron

So I found a new You Tube Channel that I thought was quite good.

But the first thing I noticed was that he had the same problem I did. After fasting, his Ferritin blew up - mine was a paltry 270. But I was only doing Alternate Day Fasting. His was in the 1000 range. But that got me thinking... both of us...

1. Fasted. Though his fasting was much more intense than mine - he went 30 days at one point.
2. Didn't really eat that much red meat so that it would seem unlikely to be getting excess iron in the diet.
3. Did not see our Iron on our blood tests go very high... so why would iron be relatively low.. while our Ferritin blew up?

Looking at several other websites I found a commonality. Many people noticed a jump in Ferritin -- only -- with fasting. 

Then I kind of found it.. I think. It seems to be related to your iron stores... your body keeps iron for later in the liver.  The liver: conductor of systemic iron balance But for some reason, believed to related to the hormone Ghrelin ... (your hunger hormone) when you fast your body lets go of the iron. Fasting Increases Iron Export in the Liver. There is also some suggestion based on a study with pigs that it is the weight loss that increases iron.  Effect of Prolonged Fasting on Iron Stores and Blood Constituents in Young Swine  So it seems that when you are losing a lot of weight and or fasting for a long time (not time restricted eating) your body gets the message to release the iron stores in you liver and your body's Ferritin must jump into action to collect up all that extra iron before you do damage to your organs.  So in theory this is how the iron in the blood stays low... but Ferritin goes up. 

I also found this study Weight loss may have contributed to hyperferritinaemia in up to 11%. My guess on this is that the fast you lose weight the more you body releases iron. 

Then this "Table 1: Causes of raised serum ferritin without iron overload [19]." Ferritin without Iron And one of the Causes of Raised Ferritin without Iron Overload is.... "Check for weight loss, anorexia."

This is, imho, just another example of medical incompetence.  When I was doing a medically monitored diet previously, they never ever ever tested Ferritin.  Even my you tube buddy had his doctor write it off to a cast iron cooking pan. Of course that might have been part of it -- but it wasn't the problem. It took me about 20 minutes on Google to find the issue. Grr.

Blood Thinning and MGUS - again.

One of the frustrating parts about MGUS is that there is so little information, both about MGUS proper and about things you can do around MGUS.  But something that sticks out to me as something which must be dangerous ... is the thickening of the blood. No, I know that Dr. Kyle told me that doesn't happen except in advanced cases of MGUS, but, I don't believe we are talking about the same thing. I believe he is talking about thickening of the blood that is dangerous and requires medical intervention and I am talking about ANY thickening of the blood.  

It is well-known that thicker blood is more associated with cancer.  All blood thinning medication and blood thinning supplements are associated with less cancer.  This includes blood thinners like Warfarin and Supplements like Tumeric. Diabetics have thicker blood and in fact, the American Diabetes Association recommends 1 baby aspirin per day.  

And someone just gave me a big tip as to how that can be. 

Anti angiogenesis plays a role in starving cancers. Thin blood can cause anti angiogenesis. Pruning off blood supply to cancers. Thick blood leads to angio genesis, where a cancer signals the body to grow blood to feed the cancer cells.

I have asked for a citation to this but my  preliminary looking at it... seems accurate. This came up in the context of discussing fasting. And fasting is known to thin the blood. Though we are not sure why... it could be due to autopahagy or it could be due to messages to produce less red blood cells.  People on blood thinners are warned to discuss fasting with their doctors -- because the dose of blood thinner has to go down.  I know when I do donate blood I cannot fast for the two weeks surrounding it. 

So for me.. it is crucial that anyone who has MGUS keep their blood thin from the moment they are diagnosed. It is like a snowball rolling down hill... Mgus slightly thickens your blood, thicker blood encourages cells to go cancerous..... At the same time MGUS patients are specifically stopped from doing the one thing that is most likely to (and safe) keep our blood thin.. donate blood.  What a perfect recipe for disaster. 

I have published a health book

Yes, I have put all my various thoughts on health down in a book. It does not discuss MGUS because I want to do that as a separate book (which I have just started now) but it discusses all that I have learned in 40 years and my best information. 

Guerrilla Tactics for the Health of your Dreams

I am overweight!

It has been a long time in the making but I am officially now just overweight.. not obese!

Ironically trying to lose weight was probably the reason I found my MGUS. In November of 2019 I was on "emergency" at work. This is my busy season and it really exhausted me more than ever before. I weighted in at 217... one of my highest weights.. and I was coming home at night in miserable condition. In pain, exhausted. I was growing out of my clothing. 

So I decided it was time to lose weight and I started with Intermittent fasting. I wasn't on it long when I got sick. That derailed me. But then in January and February of 2020 I had pain in my back. It seemed linked to IF. And it was through the pain I found my MGUS. Then Covid hit and things were on hold. 

Finally in November of 2020 I realized we weren't going back to work and this was my opportunity to lose weight. And so, I started on Keto. And I went down about 10 lbs in about a months time. But then I started Alternate day fasting. Things really got rolling. 

Lately however, things have been difficult. I can't tell if I am being impatient or hurting my own progress by taking breaks. I live in fear or adaptive thermogenesis because that has happened before. But I have to stop to say that I am now officially simply overweight. This is a major milestone.  

I am now questioning adaptive thermogenesis because I have been pivoting and taking breaks and it does seem far more difficult now to lose weight. So is it adaptive thermogenesis? Or does my TDEE just reduce when I get to a lower weight? 

At the same time I am not at all sure what I have been eating because one day I will fast, one day I will over do the calories... etc. Some days I will eat carbs.

So I think for the month of June I am just going to do Calorie Restriction / Keto so I can get an idea of how much weight I lose. It appears I have been losing about 3 lbs per month... if on steady Keto for a month I lose 3 lbs at a 1000 calorie per day level.. I will know that my TDEE is about 1400. 

Genetic Test for Progression.

So recently they have delineated genetic markers for precursor conditions... 

Whole-Genome Sequencing Identifies 2 Distinct Myeloma Precursor Conditions

"Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has the potential to accurately differentiate between stable and progressive precursor conditions to multiple myeloma in low disease burden clinical states and the use of this technology in the clinic may result in a significant shift in the management of these patients, according to data from a study published in Nature Communications.

The distribution of genetic events reveals striking differences and the existence of 2 biologically and clinically distinct entities of asymptomatic monoclonal gammopathies: (i) one entity characterized by a sufficient number of myeloma genomic defining events to confer malignant potential and which is associated with progressive disease, and (ii) another entity with a lower burden of genetic events characterized by high likelihood of a prolonged, indolent, and clinically stable course

Going forward, improved and biology-oriented strategies to accurately identify patients with progressive myeloma precursor condition before clonal expansion (i) will allow earlier initiation of therapy before onset of end-organ damage to avoid severe clinical complications, (ii) will prevent patients with precursor conditions from being overtreated."

This is all over the place in blood cancer journals so I feel like this is important.   If we can identify with a simple test who is in danger of progression and who isn't... we can treat someone BEFORE THEY GET A LOT OF CLONES.  Right now, the danger of treating someone is what if the condition never gets any worse... 

Imagine then if we could avoid the development of blood cancer for 20 to 30 years with just a simple treatment every 5 years or so? IMHO that would effectively end blood cancer. 

Currently I have sent a lot of blood and data to the PC Crowd and Impact studies. I hope they are using it to test some of these theories out. 

Results of Blood Donation

 So, two weeks after blood donation I got some lab tests - amazing results on Iron:

• My Ferritin went from 211 to 108;
• My Iron total went from 120 to 57
• My Iron Binding Capacity went from 360 to 340
• My Saturation % went from 31 to 16. 

All within range and a major drop from where I was before.  Yeh!

But, my number one concern is inflammation so I got HS-CRP done again and:

• My HS-CRP went from 4.2 to 3.8. 

STILL MASSIVELY HIGH. 

I am frustrated beyond measure. So I went and looked at my prior HS-CRP and only once was it as elevated as it is now. When I was doing a liquid diet of about 800 calories per day. 

When I was doing that my body went haywire. My brother had a similar reaction when he did a juicing fast. My cholesterol went up very high. All of it only went down when I started eating more.

So I looked it up... could "starvation" cause high inflammation? Yes... yes... I found several studies showing that people with Anorexia have higher inflammation even though, due to their weight, they should have less.

Wow, so frustrating. They tell you that losing weight will reduce inflammation but... eating too little will increase it.

You know what this means for my dieting right? I will have to increase my calories and attempt to lose a lot more slowly. Given the fact that I have about 50 lbs to lose, this is very depressing.