The Luck Of The Genes
There’s an article in The Times, which is entitled When It Comes To Success, Luck Can Trump Intelligence.
It got me thinking about my life.
I have been pretty successful in life, and I put it down to winning the gene lottery, with a part-Jewish father and a part-Huguenot mother, who taught me hard work and everything they knew. So were my genes forged by religious persecution in the harsh conditions of the ghettoes of Europe?
But luck has always played a great part in my success. On the way, three or four successful men have chosen me for projects and I’ve repaid them by succeeding. I’ve been at the heart of the creation of two world-changing companies.
But the luck turned bad, a dozen years ago. My wife and our youngest son died from cancer and I had a serious stroke.
But the genetic lottery of being coeliac and therefore having B12 injections, has meant, I’ve made a good recovery from the stroke. The B12 injections is a stroke recovery method from the States, but is considered quackery over here. I believe it saved my life.
And then during the pandemic, those coeliac genes and the gluten-free diet I need for health, seem to have protected me from a severe dose of the covids. I’ve yet to find a fellow coeliac, who has had one either. Scientific research from Italy and Sweden, is also backing up my observations.
Lady luck has smiled on me. Or does the devil, look after her own?
I Need To Regularly Eat A Large Plate Of Calves’ Liver
I’ve always liked liver, as did my father and we would eat it regularly at home. We were the two coeliacs in the family, although neither of us had been diagnosed at the time.
My late wife never ever cooked me liver, but would always be happy to go with me, when I ate it. I remember once in Berlin, she found a wonderful restaurant that served liver, on the other side of the city to where we were staying.
I also used to eat it regularly in restaurants when I moved to London, especially in Carluccio’s. The one round the corner from me in Islington is long gone and I used to eat liver there often.
But now finding a restaurant that serves calve’s liver in London is extremely difficult. Marks and Spencer also used to sell it, as I wrote in Lovely Liver. They still sell lamb’s liver but it’s not the same.
I’m certain, if I don’t supplement my B12 injections with a nice plate of liver, I get medical problems.
I suspect that my stroke-damaged brain, may well snaffle a lot of the B12 injection, thus leaving the rest of my body with just a few dregs.
So does anybody know of a quality pub or restaurant within easy reach of public transport from London, that sells liver?
Or failing that a proper butchers, that can prepare it for me to cook.
It should be noted, that I’m not good at cutting up meat, as my left arm is damaged. Not by the stroke, but by the school bully, who broke my arm, when I was fourteen.
Ease Up IPA Goes Gluten Free!
The title of this post, is the same as that of this page on the Adnams web site.
I am now 75 and I have been drinking Adnams beer, almost exclusively since I was thirteen.
My father introduced me to halves of Adnams bitter, whilst playing snooker at Felixstowe Conservative Club.
Part of his logic behind doing this was to teach me to drink alcohol responsibly, like he did and to prevent me ending up like his father, who was a drunk, who died before the age of forty.
The other thing, that my father’s teaching did was give me a preference for good real ale. And especially Adnams!
As I write this, I’m drinking a bottle of their 0.5 % Ghost Ship.
I drink it for three reasons.
- Obviously, I like the taste.
- It is low-alcohol, so it doesn’t affect the action of the Warfarin, that stops me having another stroke.
- I also find, that because the beer is made with low amounts of barley to keep the alcohol low, it doesn’t affect my gut, despite the fact that I’m a coeliac.
I have yet to find a low-alcohol beer, that has had an adverse effect on my body.
But Will Ease Up Be Safe For A Coeliac To Drink?
These paragraphs describe how Ease Up is brewed and the testing of the product.
When producing Ease Up, we now use an enzyme called Clarex® which breaks down gluten-type proteins, reducing gluten content to below 20 parts per million (ppm). Only foods that contain 20ppm or less can be labelled as ‘gluten-free.’ According to Coeliac UK, research shows people diagnosed as coeliac can consume products with gluten present at or less than this level, but customers are advised to consider their own individual tolerances.
Clarex® is added in the fermentation vessel, where it mixes well during a normal, vigorous fermentation. Our beer is tested at the end of fermentation and then, after packaging, it is put on hold while it undergoes a thorough external validation process before it is confirmed gluten free and released. Just look out for the new, updated branding.
Note the phrase about individual tolerances.
Conclusion
It looks like Adnams have produced the ideal real ale to have in your pub, club or house, if you have some coeliac customers, family or friends.
Never did I think, I would ever write about disruptive innovation in the brewing industry.
Vitamin B12 For Stroke Recovery: Understanding The Benefits & Safety Tips
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the FlintRehab web site.
I have posted the link, as I was talking to a doctor earlier and they might like to look at it.
Consider.
- I am coeliac on a strict gluten-free diet.
- Since the coeliac diagnosis in 1997, I have had a B12 injection every three months.
- I had a serious stroke ten year ago.
- Some doctors feel, I have made an excellent recovery from my stroke.
Could my regular B12 injections have aided my recovery?
Note, that I have cleaned up the Vitamin B12 tag in this blog.
I Was Struggling In The Heat
Early last week, I was struggling in the heat.
On Wednesday, I had my three-monthly B12 injection injection and since then I’ve been feeling a lot better.
Yesterday, when I went to see the Oxted Viaduct, I climbed a couple of short hills in the heat and had no problem.
I have my B12 injections because I’m coeliac and I was at one time low on B12.
Given too, that some web sites report than B12 helps stroke recovery, does that explain, why I made a better than some recovery from my stroke?
At least three doctors, I’ve met, have used the word remarkable when talking about my stroke recovery.
I certainly would create a fuss, if the GP, thought I should stop taking B12. But then I’ve been taking it for at least thirty years.
Increased Risk Of Atrial Fibrillation In Patients With Coeliac Disease: A Nationwide Cohort Study
I was looking for something else and found this medical paper on the web site of Professor Joe West at Nottingham University.
As I am coeliac, have atrial fibrillation and had a severe stroke from which have made a good recovery. I thought I would post the link, so that others might read what is said.
If my GP or myself had known of the link, my life would probably have been very different.
My Strange Relationship With Vitamin B12
For the last couple of days my eyesight has not been its best.
My typing has been not of its usual quality for a one handed typist and I even have had difficulty with doing up my shoe laces. So much so, that yesterday, I wore my best slip-on shoes with a royal warrant from the Queen.
My INR yesterday was 2.2, which is within range.
Last night, I decided to give myself a pseudo injection of B12 – a tin of sardines and two eggs baked in the oven. Serial Cooking -Sardines And Baked Eggs gives the recipe and full instructions.
- My typing this morning is so much better.
- I just tied my shoe laces with alacrity.
- But my INR has risen to 3.3.
I do wonder, if after my stroke, that my brain directs the B12 to the damaged areas and that those, who advocate B12 after stroke are right!
As to the INR, I’ve just found this page on Valve Replacement.org.
But as a Control Engineer, I have the solution. Test my INR every day.
A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots
I am a coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet.
I am worried that the covids might prey on people like me, so I am researching hard to find out the truth.
Note that in much of Europe, North America and Australasia, coeliacs are at least 1-in-100 of the population and could be higher.
This morning I found on the Internet, a peer-reviewed Danish study which was entitled
Coeliac Disease And Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study
The nation in the study was Denmark.
This was the introductory paragraph.
Patients with coeliac disease (CD) may be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its complication pulmonary embolism (PE), because they are reported to have hyperhomocysteinaemia, low levels of K-vitamin-dependent anticoagulant proteins, and increased levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor.
One thing in this summary screams at me. The mention of vitamin-K!
Ten years ago, I had a serious stroke, that because of modern clot-busting drugs failed to kill me.
I am now on long-term Warfarin and know I have to eat a diet without Vitamin-K.
Given that in a nation like Germany with a population of eighty-three million, there could be nearly a million coeliacs, many of whom will be undiagnosed, this Danish study should be taken seriously, as it should be able to predict the number of clots down to coeliac disease in Germany. But I’m just an engineer and statistician and no medic. Although after the medical troubles of my family, I know a lot more medical knowledge than I did twenty years ago.
An article in The Times, also says that all but two who suffered clots after having the AstraZeneca vaccine were women.
It should be noted that the NHS states on its web site, that women are three times more likely to suffer coeliac disease than men.
I am absolutely certain, that more research needs to be done.
Are Coeliacs More Risk-Averse?
I am coeliac, which means, that I am allergic to gluten!
So I have to be very careful about what I eat.
I have perhaps been glutened two or three times in the twenty years since I was diagnosed. With me it is nothing serious, but it does mean being close to a toilet for some hours.
If I look at my behaviour generally, I sometimes wonder, if I have become more risk-averse since my diagnosis.
I think too, that I’ve probably become more risk-averse since my stroke, after which, one of the world’s leading cardiologists told me, that if I got the Warfarin right, I’d never have another stroke.
I intend to prove him right! So I watch my INR like a Control Engineer would monitor reactor temperature in a nuclear power station.
I would assume that my risk-averse behaviour is fairly normal.
So if you have had a serious illness or near-death experience from which you have been able to almost fully recover, are you doing your best to make sure that you avoid COVID-19?
Twice-Yearly Jab Could Replace Statins For Millions
This is an article in today’s Times.
As I have four B12 injections year, that would fit well with my health care.
The Anonymous Widower 