Fliparion Saucynuckle

BY DR. BAYNE FRENCH MD DC

It’s time for another patient vignette. A “before and after” case study to illustrate the power of enjoyably sustainable lifestyle improvements.

Fliparion “Flip” Saucynuckle, at 60 years old, made some high-level realizations. He realized his life sucked. It sucked because his health sucked. He realized he needed to change things. He obtained some basic education on proper human nutrition, and Flip enacted it in an enjoyable, sustainable way.

Let’s back up. Mr. Saucynuckle came in for a physical in August 2022. He was pretty down. Pissed off about numerous things involving our rapidly eroding species, our dying planet, and other things that made my eyes glass over. After a while, he sounded like Charlie Brown's parents. “Wha wha wha. Whaa, wha wha. Wha Whaaa Wha”. He considered leaving the country. “Why would you do that??” I wondered. Aloud. So he started telling me why. My ears glassed over, so I did a quick pivot to his crappy lifestyle.

Flip was drinking juice and eating starch with every meal and sometimes between meals. Hey, he’s American. At least for now, so give him a break. Look at the Food Pyramid! He’s just following directions. But he didn’t feel well at all. He had little energy and was gaining weight. Stunning.

His hemoglobin A1c (a three-month, very useful measure of blood sugar) was in the pre-diabetic range of 5.8. His fasting blood sugar was 126, which is actually the cut-off for full-blown diabetes. His creatinine, a measure of kidney health, was not good at 1.3. The fat in Flip's blood, triglycerides, was 215, and his HDL (“good” cholesterol) was 26. This made his triglyceride/HDL ratio awful at 8.2. A ratio over 3 makes your chance of being dead much higher. His liver was a bright spot, with an AST of 31 and an ALT of 29.

Fliparion followed up with me a few days later (9/6/22 if you must know. Geez). The caring nurturer in me came out, and screaming was kept to a minimum. I never once said he was a complete idiot for drinking Mountain Dew with some vitamins (juice) or subsisting on carbohydrates. I don’t even think I mentioned that what he was doing would render longevity an impossibility. He seemed to get the picture, asked great questions, and left the office scared stiff-I mean…motivated and informed.

Fast forward to November 6, 2023. Flip returned to our lab. His hemoglobin A1c was down to 5.5, which is considered normal. He cured his pre-diabetes. His blood sugar improved to 98; kidney function improved to 1.1; triglycerides dramatically improved to 63, with HDL reluctantly increasing to 29. His triglyceride/HDL ratio improved to 2.1; liver function, which wasn’t terrible to begin with, improved to AST 18 and ALT 16. The improvements in his liver tests do imply that he had some element of fatty liver disease previously.

A few days later, Fliparion presented for a physical, anxious to know the results of his lab. I refused to tell him just because I can be naughty sometimes. I made him suffer a little bit as I poked and prodded on his person. Only later did I tell him that, across the board, his labs had improved dramatically. He informed me that he had stopped eating breakfast most days, with first food consumption at about noon and done eating by 8 PM. He also reduced all forms of starch, eating small amounts mindfully. No more juice or other sweetened beverages.

Flip was feeling much better. He had more energy, and his weight went from 192 to 177. The changes he experienced were without medication. He reported that he enjoyed his new relationship with food, had no cravings, and was rarely hungry. Interestingly, he wasn’t dwelling on our sapien cesspool problems either, which was great because I didn’t really understand anything he was saying anyway.