Updates on several posts: My collagen results, GMO wheat now exists in the US and Lp(a) updates.
What happened when I took collagen daily for 3 months, GMO wheat did not exist until now and big pharma is closer to having a drug to reduce Lp(a)-what this means when you go for routine blood work.
I am linking to the posts I updated and putting the updated material here in this substack for those who do not want to search an old post for newer information (I put the updates in the posts in italicized quotes to make them easier to identify).
Collagen Updates
I wrote a substack a while back on collagen and that I would take a specific product and dose for 12 weeks and report back to all of you.
I updated the collagen post with my results, which can be found here.
Here is the updated Collagen information:
Update November 2024: I took the collagen daily, adding a scoop to my morning tea so it was easy to remember to consume. I continue to take it past the 12-week trial period because I have noticed less psoriatic arthritic pain.
However, I hoped it would improve the thinning hair on top of my head, which it has not. It does feel like the hair on my crown area is thicker, but that is not where I was concerned. Other postmenopausal women have started this collagen product for hair loss and have noticed improvements.
I have not noticed any visible facial signs, such as fewer wrinkles.
I continue to take it for joint reasons because I feel it has helped, and I want to remain active.
GMO Wheat
If you purchased non-GMO wheat, this used to be a scam because no wheat crop in the US was a GMO crop. It may have been sprayed right before harvest, although there is no way to tell how much, if any, herbicide and pesticide content your wheat product contained. If you wanted to avoid sprayed wheat, you had to buy organic wheat.
GMO wheat has now been approved in the US, so the non-GMO wheat label now applies!
Read this post for more information or the update below
I stated above that all wheat in the US is non-GMO wheat. However, that is no longer correct. President Biden’s Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, said that US farmers could grow a type of GMO wheat that can soak up glufosinate, a 500 times more toxic pesticide than glyphosate and has been banned in the EU since 2013.
The USDA did not contact any reviewers or allow for public comments. This is because President Trump, during his first presidency, pushed GMO deregulation through in 2020.
Glufosinate-tolerant wheat may be the first GMO wheat grown in the US. It can currently be found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Australia, NZ, South Africa, Nigeria, and Indonesia allow GMO wheat to be imported for food and feed.
Lipoprotein a (Lp(a)). A genetic marker for cardiovascular risk.
In a previous substack on niacin benefits for Lp(a) reduction, I mentioned a new drug that may come to market within a few years that has been shown to reduce Lp(a).
Below is the updated information on that substack
A recent Medscape article indicated that Eli Lily, who sponsored and designed the drug trials, is in phase II for their potential new drug to reduce genetic cholesterol determined by testing your Lp(a) levels. The drug is called muvalaplin.
The author of the Medscape article, Julie Steenhuysen, states that most people do not know they have elevated Lp(a) and that no approved treatment for this biomarker, such as statins for elevated LDL, exists.
People do not know if they have elevated Lp(a) because doctors don’t test for it. Doctors do not test for it because it doesn’t result in profit for them since they can not give you a drug.
But now, with this drug in phase II drug trials, expect to see more doctors testing your Lp(a) levels, letting you know a pill is on the way to save you.
I cannot see the complete Phase II study, just the abstract. The 12-week study was conducted on 233 adults, with 67 participants in the placebo group. The abstract does not indicate if the placebo was a sugar pill or another drug.
I wonder about the placebo in the study because the article states that adverse events were similar in both groups. We would assume that the placebo is a sugar pill. However, since the control group rarely receives a saline placebo in vaccine trials, could the placebo group in these trials be another drug? It would be nice if this were clarified.
The study results found no change in the hs-CRP biomarker. (To learn more about the hs-CRP biomarker and its importance, read this substack).
The researchers admit that much more extensive studies are required to determine if lowering Lp(a) has any benefits, such as reducing the risk of a cardiovascular event.
Determining if the drug prevents cardiovascular events in people with elevated Lp(a) is critical. In statin trials, they only had to show that the drug reduced total and LDL cholesterol; they did not have to show that it prevented a cardiovascular event.
Research indicates that the more you lower your LDL, the greater your risk of heart attacks and strokes, all the while causing joint pain, severe fatigue, and dementia.
The full text of the phase I trials is available. During phase I, the doses used were broader, up to 800 mg. In phase II, the dose only went as high as 240 mg per day.
In the 14-day trial, 62% reported 71 adverse events in the single ascending dose group, and 80% reported 175 adverse events in the multiple ascending dose group. The investigator considered the adverse events mild, such as headache, fatigue, and abdominal pain.
What are the adverse events in the 12-week study? If anyone has access to the full text of the phase II trial, please share!
Bottom Line: Once this drug is approved, expect to see the Lp(a) biomarker in your labs. If it is elevated, prepare for your medical professional's pharmaceutical speech.
What will you do if you find out you have a genetic risk factor for cardiovascular disease?
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This is NOT information allopathic practitioners will share with you.
The Dr. Hyman Show podcast just released a short episode about hair loss and possible root causes. There's reference links on the page for the episode over here:
https://drhyman.com/blogs/content/podcast-ep984
'A midwestern Doctor' here on Substack has been giving out lots of info on DMSO, and did mention about it helping hair loss in one of the DMSO articles. He's done several articles, so you may need to scan all of them to find which one had that information. You might want to try it.