Arachidonic Acid - reaction - how long does it last?

[Sharvo]

Hi,
I was a long time vegetarian and have been adding meat back in my diet over the last year or so. Recently I found some organic beef so I've had a couple 120 gm lean ground beef burgers over the past week. One last night and I've had a big BP jump later in the evening. It's freaking me out (I have other BP complications) and I thought my BP would be down by now, but it's not as low as it was.

Anyone know anything abou this? How long it lasts? I had planned another burger for tonight (while it's fresh) but now I'm afraid to eat :eek:

Sharvo

[maxlharris]

Hey Sharvo,

Here's a link to something the Eades wrote about AA and beef. At least it came up when I googled for AA beef. I don't see a BP rise as a reaction to AA, so it might be something else entirely. In fact, a further googling seemed to indicate a BP depressive effect.

Whoops: Forgot the link:
http://www.opinions3.com/arachidonic_acid.htm

[Sharvo]

Hi - I don't see the link onyour post?
Anyway - it was wierd because I just happened to get to pg 353 in the PP paperback edition last night just after I took my BP - it's almost a throw away line - "If you do everything else right, keep your insulin levels low, and still have a problem (with hypertension, for instance), maybe you're exceptionally sensitive to dietary arachidonic acid. You might want to try reducing your intake and see what happens."

On 349 he says "We also use fish oil to counter the effects of arachidonic acid ..."

At the beginning of this week I stopped all supplements because I thought it was the Acetyl L Carnitine that was starting a gradual increase in my BP and I wanted to re-introduce them one at a time. With last night's bump I think I start the fishoil first :)

Well, logging off & hoping for better things tomorrow.

Sharvo

[Karole]

I was rereading PP and was interested to note that he said red meat and egg yolk could affect folks who are sensitive to AA. Are you consuming a lot of egg yolk too?

[maxlharris]

Last thing: FWIW, I raised the AA issue with Dr. Eades about a year and a half ago (Dr. Mike that is). He says they've moved on in their thinking as there's been new research, which is why it isn't covered in LifePlan. At that point, there was an oxidization factor to something in egg yolks that made scrambled, omelets and other approaches where you broke yolks and cooked a little less than sexy. I forget the specific problem, but it wound up a lot like the AA problem in PP, which, as I recall, was centered more on egg yolks than beef.

[Sharvo]

Hi,
Karole, not a lot of eggs and not frequently, however, I've had 110gm of beef on each of 5 of the last 8 days and eggs on 4 of the 8. So considering that I haven't had beef in 20 years, that might have been a perfect storm of AA. Or it might just be too soon to come off the diuretic entirely, though I was ok the week before.

I'm going to decide tonight whether to start the diuretic again in the morning - BP impacts other conditions I have that I can't really afford to wait and see for days to see whether it'll come down or not and I just take 1/2 a tablet. My MD is out of town this week or I'd be talking to her about it. The good news is that my blood work was much improved several weeks ago so that's one less thing to worry about.

Max, I didn't really follow what you were saying about breaking yolks. I must say that's one thing I'm not crazy about PP is that the books are a little dated. I've finished PP last night and got LP from the library - starting that tonight. But things change so quickly in that field and the author, as you say, may change their thinking about something and I'll never know unless there's a revised edition.

Oh well, thanks for your interest and comments. Back to the books ;)

Sharvo

[maxlharris]

Fats, or lipids, are in the yolks. They are prone to oxidization. The best way to think about oxidization is as rust. Rust is oxidized iron. Oxidized fats are not particularly good for you, at least some of them. The Eades, in PP, were against eating too many egg yolks because of the AA issue. They reversed their thinking to where it was in PPLP. In PPLP, they caution about eating too many broken egg yolks subjected to direct heat. Think on this as scrambled, omelets, or hard fried where you break the yolks on the pan. The combination of heat and oxygen changes the fats from perfect food into something not particularly good for you, if you have it often or in great quantities. I don't have my PPLP with me, so I cannot give a page ref, or a specific instruction, but I recall them dumping the AA reasoning against yolk consumption and moving to an oxidization reasoning against broken yolk cooking.

So, what to do. I eat omelets on occasion. But I mostly eat eggs sunny up. Funny thing. I used to hate eating yolk alone. I would either have it mixed in or on toast or something to, I dunno, adulterate it. Now, I break the yolk first, and eat the cooked part first. Weird.