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Adventures in Adrenaline

Jim said he didn't want no more damned adventures. -The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

 Getting a shot of epinephrine once again made me feel tired and gave me palpitations. At least this time I knew to pop magnesium pills (good ones ending in -ate) like candy. I now carry three magnesium pills with me in case of emergency--they don't have any at hospitals.

The second part of my root canal was Wednesday. Thursday was a major deadline at work, and when a code enforcement officer called me about some overgrown weeds in my front yard, I was all out of nice. Between the mostly cold weather, a dental infection and shots of the dreaded epinephrine, I hadn't felt up to anything but going to work and being bothered by a bureaucrat over some weeds was too much.

But by Saturday, I felt well enough to weed the front yard, prune the tree there and clean the house. Today (Sunday), I found I felt better if I moved around--I spaded up part of the back yard to plant more grass, since part of the lawn died last year when I was helping take care of my parents. I weeded the back yard, fertilized the roses, ironed my clothes and went to a meetup. I also walked around the neighborhood taking photos of yards that really do look bad in case I hear from Code Enforcement again.

Part of my reaction to epinephrine might have been from a low-carb diet. Ten years ago, Michael Eades quoted a 1992 paper from the American Journal of Physiology regarding both fasting and a low-carb diet:

Plasma insulin, a potent inhibitor of lipolysis, declines; plasma epinephrine, a potent lipolytic agent, increases. In addition, adipose tissue sensitivity to insulin is decreased, whereas sensitivity of epinephrine is enhanced...

Peter over at Hyperlipid has also mentioned people getting palpitations on very low carb diets from their own adrenaline.

The first paper which had me thinking was this one.  
"Both the pre-and post-exercise levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol were enhanced." 
This is the sort of thing I file as interesting. That is, until the anecdotes trickle in about people who have gone to extreme ketogenic diets and have developed abnormal cardiac rhythms.

Anyway. It's Sunday night, and I'm off to tear up the dance floor.
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Comments

tess said…
:-D yeah, TEAR UP that floor, girl!
May 03, 2015
Galina L. said…
I insist on not using epinephrine on me, the success rate of my efforts at least 90 %.
May 03, 2015
Lori Miller said…
Maybe I should have a no-epinephrine policy.

Ah, it feels good to have energy again. I don't even feel like I lost any muscle tone; maybe it was all those Quest bars I ate. (True story--I craved Quest bars and nacho cheese while my tooth was infected. A cashier at the convenience store in my building also had an infected tooth and craved the exact same things.)
May 04, 2015
Galina L. said…
Probably, cravings for a junk could be a symptom of something going wrong, like abnormal interest in food is often the symptom of a metabolic condition. It could be even worse. Younger ladies who were recovering after hysterectomy due to a cancer told me they were craving sweets and pastry to a truly abnormal level before the diagnose, but didn't get fat. Older people in the same hospital ward didn't have such story to tell, but they were diabetics.
May 04, 2015
Lori Miller said…
The glucose form the pastries might have been eaten up by cancer cells instead of their fat cells. In diabetics, nothing is eating it up--it's just staying in their blood.

There's not much carbohydrate in Quest bars or nacho cheese. Maybe it's just protein and fat that doesn't have to be prepared.
May 04, 2015
Galina L. said…
It is often reported that many people crave cheese and nuts, even though not many carbs are there. May be for a person who eats a LC diet nuts and cheeses(and Quest bars) are the equivalents of cakes and candies (a dainty foods) for a person who eats so-called balanced diet? I noticed children when they are sick , they don't want to eat , but they seek for a food-pleasing options.
May 04, 2015
Lori Miller said…
When I was a kid, I craved salty snack when I was sick.

I still like Quest bars, but I haven't thought much about nacho cheese in the past week.
May 04, 2015
Lowcarb team member said…
Hope you danced the night away and the new week has started well for you.

All the best Jan
May 04, 2015
Lori Miller said…
I had a fun night. And the work deadline is over, the weeds are pulled, I'm feeling better...life is good again.
May 04, 2015
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