Category: Weekly Status

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 12/12/21

This week, I posted the first experiments from my attempt to reduce my blood pressure. I started by measuring the repeatability (within-instrument variation) and reproducibility (between instrument variation) of my Omron Evolve blood pressure monitor. Unfortunately, the standard deviation was high compared to my target reduction (~3 vs. 10 mmHg), meaning that I’ll need to measure multiple times per observation in order to get sufficient precision.

Lesson for future experiments: I should have measured the repeatability & reproducibility before starting any other experiments. I finished up the deep breathing study before I got these results, and from a quick look at the data, the error bars are too large to draw a conclusion and I’ll need to repeat it. Lesson learned, always run a power calculation first…

Experiments this week:

  • Whole foods: none (traveling)
  • Blood pressure:
    • Completed the deep breathing study, started repeat with 5 measurements/observation
    • Analysis of repeatability testing

Next week:

  • Food effect:
    • continued testing of whole foods
  • Blood pressure:
    • Post initial deep breathing study & continue the repeat.
    • Analysis of historical data.


– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.


– QD

Observations & Data

Continue reading “Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 12/12/21” →

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 12/04/21

This week, I posted interim results from blood glucose testing of whole foods. So far, all were relatively consistent with the available nutrition info, indicating no surprise digestible fibers. I’ll be continuing testing of whole foods for the next few weeks, so if you have any you’d like to try, let me know in the comments.

I’ve just about finished up the first blood pressure experiments: meter repeatability & reproducibility testing, deep breathing effect, and data-mining of my daily testing. I’m part way through the data analysis and will be posting the results of these over the next few weeks.

Experiments this week:

  • Whole foods: lupini beans, white mushrooms, fennel
  • Blood pressure:

Next week:

  • Food effect:
    • continued testing of whole foods
  • Blood pressure:
    • Continuing the deep breathing study; 2 more weeks to finish and analyze.


– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.


– QD

Observations & Data

Continue reading “Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 12/04/21” →

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/28/21

I finished up and posted the results from testing fast-acting histamine for my exercise-induced rhinitis. The antihistamine reduced my rhinitis, but it could be due to preventing a mild allergy or just drying out my nasal passages. All other allergy medicines also reduce mucus production, so I need to figure out another way to distinguish between cold and allergies as a cause. Current leading candidates are saline solution and warm clothing that doesn’t cover my nose.

Also this week, I did an interim analysis of data I’ve been collecting on how my chess puzzle performance is influenced by CO2 levels and health parameters. This one was really interesting, despite not finding any statistically significant results. Specifically, I saw modest effect sizes with close to significant p-values for CO2 levels >600 ppm and BG coefficient of variation. Likely due to chance, but the study was underpowered, so worth collecting more data to see if I can pin down or rule out an effect.

Experiments this week:

  • Whole foods: raspberries, blackberries, macadamia nuts, strawberries, black soybeans, celery
  • Blood pressure:
    • 11/20 runs of the deep breathing study
    • 47 measurements testing concordance between two BP meters
    • Tracking BP every 30 min. over the course of a day
  • Exercise-induced Rhinitis:

Next week:

  • Food effect:
    • continued testing of whole foods
  • Blood pressure:
    • Continuing the deep breathing study; 2 more weeks to finish and analyze.


– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.


– QD

Observations & Data

Continue reading “Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/28/21” →

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/21/21

I’m always looking for collaborators for future experiments. If you’re interested in collaborating on scientifically rigorous self-experiments with low-carb foods, supplements, or other health interventions, please let me know in the comments or via the contact form on the right.

I finally finished and posted my flour replacement tests. This was a really fun experiment. I found a number of alternate flours with low BG impact that I hadn’t heard of before (e.g. ground chia seed and King Arthur Keto blend) and learned a lot about the behavior and exact BG impact of the flours I had been using. This has got me interested in doing some low-carb baking experiments again. I’m going to try making pizza first and will report back if anything works well.

Experiments this week:

  • Whole foods: Palmini low-carb linguine, almonds, salmon, tuna, pork rinds, tomatoes
  • Blood pressure:
  • Exercise-induced Rhinitis:

Next week:

  • Food effect: next week is Thanksgiving here in the US, so I’ll be doing less food effect tests, but I should be able to fit in a few more whole foods.
  • Blood pressure:
    • I’ll be continuing the deep breathing study, but it will take another 3 weeks to finish and analyze.
    • I’m going to take advantage of the holiday to do try tracking my BP over the course of a day to see how it varies. I’ll post that data sometime in the next couple weeks.
  • On the allergy study, I’ll be finishing the last antihistamine run, unblinding, and analyzing the data, so I should get that posted next weekend.


– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.


– QD

Observations & Data

Continue reading “Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/21/21” →

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/14/21

I’m always looking for collaborators for future experiments. If you’re interested in collaborating on scientifically rigorous self-experiments with low-carb foods, supplements, or other health interventions, please let me know in the comments or via the contact form on the right.

Two posts this week, both pre-registering my next studies: Determining causes & interventions for my elevated blood pressure & exercise-induced rhinitis (runny nose).

For the blood pressure and rhinitis, I’m excited to branch out to experiments other than blood glucose effects. Experiments for both will start Monday and I should have results to report in 3-4 weeks.

Experiments the past two weeks were focused finishing up the flour replacement tests. I’ve finally got that done and will be posting the results next week. In the meantime, I’ve gotten started on the whole food testing with almonds, salmon, and tuna. I’ve also done a few rounds of the vinegar tests with my standard breakfast, though that will take a decent size dataset before I’ll be able to draw any conclusions (BG on morning meals is noisy due to the dawn phenomenon).

Next week, I’ll be continuing the whole food testing and starting the blood-pressure and rhinitis experiments.


– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.


– QD

Observations & Data

Continue reading “Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 11/14/21” →