Posted by Optimist on March 7, 2005, at 11:20:13
I copied this post from the drug page as I thought it would be more appropriate here.
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The main premise of the book is that different macronutrient(carbohydrates:proteins:fats) and micronutrient(vitamins and minerals) ratios can effect your autonomic nervous system(sympathetic/parasympathetic) and oxidation rate(how fast you metabolize food) to influence your health(mental and physical)The parasympathetic system is associated with rest and repair, where as the sympathetic system is more stimulation and fight or flight.
Sympathetic dominance could result in mental illnesses such as anger, alcoholism(to calm down), agitated/insomniac depressions, GAD, panic, schizophrenia/psychosis, and OCD, as well as health problems like acne, diabetes, hypertension, heartburn, migraine, insomnia, restless legs, unusual pain sensitivity, and tinnitus. Those people would do better on a higher carb/lower protein diet and emphasizing magnesium, potassium, chromium, silicon, copper, iron, manganese, boron, B1, B2, niacin, B6, folic acid, vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, PABA, and 5-HTP/tryptaphan.
Parasympathetic dominance could result in such mental illnesses as alcoholism(to raise blood sugar), ADD/ADHD, social anxiety???, and anergic/atypical depression as well as health problems such as allergies, hypotension, colds/flu, diarrhea, drowsiness, eczema, chronic fatigue, gas, hypoglycemia, hives, hoarseness, nausea, osteoporosis, post nasal drip, sexual dysfunction, itchy skin, and warts. These people would do better on a higher protein/lower carb diet and emphasizing calcium, phosphorus, zinc, sodium, B5(pantothenic acid), niacinamide, B12, vitamin A, vitamin E, choline, inositol, N-acetyl-cysteine, bioflavonoids, and tyrosine/phenylalanine.
The mental illness association is purely my educated guess as sympathetic dominance is supposed to be more associated with dopamine hyperfunction/serotonin hypofunction and parasympathetic dominance is supposed to be more associated with serotonin hyperfunction/dopamine hypofunction. But as we all know mental illnesses are not that easily characterizable.
Many people are not on the extremes of autonomic nervous system function. Most are mixed types, combinations, or somewhere along the spectrum. An example: OCD as well as ADD. Therefore you may need to mix and match some of the supplements, and have a more balanced carb:protein ratio. The only way you're are going to figure it out over time is by doing the questionaires listed in the book and on the internet, and seeing how your body adapts to the different diet and supplementation recommendations.
I've got the diet pretty much ironed out myself but I'm still playing with the supplementation. I know that calcium gives me more energy and makes me feel better but exacerbates my acne so the increased acne is a price I'm willing to take until I can find a satisfactory solution. Actually my acne isn't that bad, but it is more noticable since I've been supplementing calcium again. I've pretty much beaten my hypoglycemia, and my energy is much better as well thanks to the recent change in supplementation. The supplements have helped negate a lot of the Parnate induced hypoglycemia that is supposed to happen the last 3 weeks I've been on it. I've also noticed dramatic improvements with increasing my protein, salt, magnesium, and niacinamide.
The theory behind the book is pretty straight forward but is hard to apply to oneself since everyone is biochemically different. Most likely you'll get it wrong when you first start and will have to play around with it. I was taking high dose calcium a couple years ago and really made myself worse off before I added some magnesium and lowered my calcium dosage. It's amazing how much diet and supplementation can have an effect on one's body.
There is also such variables as dominance in either oxidation rate or automomic nervous system, and acid/alkaline balance which I haven't quite figured out yet. I understand the theory behind it but am having trouble applying it to myself.
I'm sure this was way more information than you were looking for but I thought it would be a good idea to outline the theory with my own experience for anyone else that may be interested.
The book is called "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott. Here's the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767905644/002-6551691-1716021
The authors website is:
Another link on metabolic typing:
http://www.whale.to/cancer/k/Ch8.html
Brian
poster:Optimist
thread:467754
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050225/msgs/467754.html