PsychedelicEagle

Interesting. Never did 4-AcO-DMT. Now curious to try it out.

I heard from a researcher (who self-experimented with LSD over months) that 2-3 weeks is actually the ideal period. You can still develop tolerance with 2 weeks if done consistently, but not with 3. Of course that was his body, and with LSD. With mushrooms, I'd naively guess tolerance is less pronounced due to the psylocibin being more quickly cleared from your system. No, IME. I've done mushrooms 2 days in a row because I was in the NL and didn't have much time. My second trip was quite strong, I didn't notice any difference.

Interesting. Did you do the Omega 3 Index test or the serum one? Asking cause serum only reflects the last days of eating, but probably you know this. I'm also vegan (most of the time) and taking Omega 3 supplements (800mg/day of DHA+EPA), and eating a lot of freshly-ground flaxseed (I deliberately ground it myself right before eating since I've heard otherwise the Omega 3 can easily get oxidized. Anyway, flaxseed only has ALA. The same (oxidation) can happen for supplements, so I wonder if what I'm taking is good enough.

@BlessedLion, look into Sauna and exercise for more conservative heavy metal elimination methods. I posted about a study comparing the two for several heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, etc. IIRC mercury was greatly excreted by sauna, but others like lead required physical exercise to be eliminated through sweat. Another benefit of sauna is the release of heat-shock proteins. You can also incorporate meditation into your sauna sessions

Another thing to keep in mind is that Vitamin C highly increases iron absorption when both are taken together. Especially for heme iron, I would guess, as it's much more absorbed by the body. Also, heme iron increases non-heme iron absorption, IIRC. I remember these numbers because I deliberately worked to bring my ferritin levels down. IMO the > 100 marker are very common in today's population but I don't think it is really natural, as today people eat a lot more animal protein than in the past. So I deliberately try to stay on the lower end. Keep in mind I'm no nutrition specialist and these are my personal beliefs.

Good to know. So it could be that with the new diet your body is absorbing more iron indeed... Have you looked at the other iron-related measurements such as total binding capacity, latent binding capacity, transferrin saturation, etc? That could give you a better picture (I'm not a specialist but I've had these tested in the past). And, for how long have you started eating animal products? Personally, I believe lower ferritin levels are better. But I don't see how you still relatively low meat intake would affect it that much... Just jotting down my perspective.

I think ferritin gets higher not only due to higher iron stores in the body, but also when there's inflammation. A single ferritin measurement is not reliable as you said. Avoid measuring it when you are sick, it'll perturb the results. When I was not vegan, my ferritin was in the 150 range too. I wasn't as healthy back then. After becoming vegan and some blood donations I hit 40. Could it be that a non-vegan diet incurs higher inflammation?

"Quickly" and "healthily" are often at odds. Why not take your time while consistently ensuring a caloric surplus? Anyway, here are some ideas of highly caloric whole foods, healthier than most if not all processed foods: Driet fruits: dates, figs, etc. Very delicious and high in calories. Bananas. You can make a meshed banana purée mixed with pea protein isolate. Pea protein is very creamy and it should give you a consistency similar to ice cream. Add to this flaxseed, chia seeds, or hemp seeds and you'll have a natural meal rich in Omega 3 & protein. Flaxseed is also rich in many other nutrients like trace minerals. I do this every day w/ 5 bananas (3 meshed, 2 as toppings), 30g pea protein isolate, 60ml ground flaxseed, cacao nibs, cinnamon. It has about 1000 kcal. Nuts. Focus on nuts that have a low Omega6:Omega3 ratio, such as walnuts, macadamia nuts. Brazil nuts are also healthy but you should only eat one per day AFAIK. PS: Don't forget to fix your B12 and Vitamin D defficiencies and to ensure a good macro nutrient profile (10-20% calories from protein, 10-30% calories from fat, 60-80% calories from carbs).

Not true. Organic farming = sustainable agricultural system that uses ecologically based pest controls. It's mostly better for the environment, probably also better for consumers. This. For curiosity, organic seems to yield 25% less than non-organic. Disconsidering differences in pesticide, fertilizer, & other costs, one can use a simple rule of thumb to assess whether the price of an organic food is fair. Personally, I always buy organic because I believe it might be healthier and better for the planet. Which might not be true. If I wasn't able to afford organic I wouldn't matter much about it.

@aurum Yes, great points. An example of this is trace minerals. We grow our foods in soil that is reutilized over and over, with usually only a handful of minerals being replenished. Even whole foods are not as natural anymore. After learning about it, I'm now considering a trace minerals supplement.

Could it be your Cortisol regulation? Usually what makes us jump out of bed in the mornings is the cortisol peak. Not sure what would help to regulate it, but I think doing these things earlier in the day might help: exercising, cold exposure, daylight, etc. The reason is that earlier the peak the lower cortisol will be later in the day. Maybe over time this will either directly regular the cycle or indirectly help you sleep earlier.

Have you looked at the natural hygiene movement? There are some medical phylosophies that take the absence of hunger as an indicative the body needs to fast. Not necessarily suggesting it's your case, just food for thought. Other ideas: Reducing the number of meals. Personally, I eat 2x/day. I find it quite nice because when I eat it's pleasurable and I get to eat significant amounts of food in each meal. Using a blender to get more calories in. Not solving the hunger issue, but an alternative. Trace minerals. Something I became aware of recently. Not sure they can be tested...

@bambi, I honestly think these issues are not taken as seriously as they should. We live in a society where reductionism and scientism are the norm. Anyway I appreciate what Bryan is doing and I think the gradient is positive: Blueprint helps to move society to a healthier place.

The idea is to weigh measurements with other facts. Biomarkers are just one way of informing oneself. Perhaps a quite reliable one, but not infallible. Agreed, this is likely required if we want to optimize health to the extreme. But notice that manipulating highly complex biological systems is not easy. Whenever you decide to go againt nature you are playing at high stakes. Perhaps this is part of Bryan's purpose; if so, that's okay, and his findings will be valuable for humanity. I just wouldn't run the risk myself. The line is drawn arbitrarily of course. To me, the longer some behavior/food/etc. was present during our evolution, the more natural it is. Therefore I favor whole foods vs supplements, for example. Natural is not strictly better, but the standard deviation tends to be smaller: you are less likely to screw yourself by doing things we evolved doing. So we can say natural is more robust.

Indeed. He doesn't even mention meditation in the protocol. Perhaps another hint at his center of gravity still falling under Stage Orange.

Okay, I see your point. Reformulating mine, I think he relies too much on measurements, lacking epistemic humility. The more we measure, the better (disregarding measurement side effects), but that doesn't mean we have to act within the boundaries of such measurements. Besides measurements, we can use other pillars, such as history and evolution, to inform our decisions. In my example above, that would correspond to acknowledging that we evolved with our skin exposed to the Sun and therefore maintaining a minimal level of Sun exposure could be wise. Yes, granted we know what toxic chemicals to look for. Some might only be revealed to be toxic decades from now. Anyway, my personal bias is to rely on natural means as much as possible.

For instance, never exposing himself to Sunlight. Granted, UV radiation ages the skin and you can supplement Vitamin D. But what if there's more to Sunlight than Vitamin D? What if Sun exposure expresses/produces other genes or compounds we're not aware of as of today? Also, is it really healthier to block the UV you are exposed to but then risk adding other chemicals (e.g., PFAS) into your body via too much sunblocker?

I agree with this, but if you look deeper he seems to have good intentions: sharing all the data, emphasizing the importance of the fundamentals (sleep, diet, exercise), etc. He's mostly coming from a hyper rationalist perspective. Which actually makes him somewhat relatable for people who are scientifically-minded and not yet open to trans-rationalism. Fair point, indeed, and great summary. Though I still think a more holistic approach would be more robust for long-term health -- using but at the same time acknowledging the limitations of the current metrics/measurements.

As I mentioned in this post, I see his Blueprint project as quite positive. The main issue with Bryan IMO is that he's still stuck in stage orange, trying to measure everything. And IIRC he's got a quite materialist/rationalist worldview, as per his interview for Curt Jaimungal (for whom Leo was also interviewed). Still, he's got green values such environmentalism.

Agreed. Though I would remove salt, and make sure to not use any oil for cooking (just Olive Oil as a topping). IMO an significant part of a healthy diet is making it SOS-free: no Salt, Oil, or Sugar. A bit extreme for conventional standards but that's what I do.

Makes sense, whenever we take too much/too little of something we're shifting "out of distribution" as I said, so your concern is real. What makes me believe that taking supplements may be beneficial is that the soils onto which we grow our food have been drastically modified/depleted of trace minerals & perhaps even other substances such as Vitamin B12. So from this perspective we're already out of distribution without taking anything. Btw, as for Vitamin D, I take the aforementioned 5000 UI once a week during winter. Just for maintenance, since I know my current level is good.

Quite interesting, I hadn't seen this before. Thanks for sharing. Curious to see if this will indeed have an effect while keeping a safe profile. Do you know if this therapy is done once in a lifetime or if it has to be repeated in the future?

Legumes (lentils, beans, etc.) usually have some compounds which make digestion harder. These compounds are higher in concentration when the legume seed is in its dried state. Soaking (or even sprouting) and cooking help remove these compounds. I eat black lentils almost every day. I usually don't soak them, but I cook them for at least 20 minutes. It could be you are sensitive to those compounds and therefore you can try soaking or cooking for a longer period. Also, are you eating the same amount of calories you normally do? Consider other ingredients as well, such as the hempseed. IIRC they can cause allergy. You can try ablating the different ingredients to see if the lentils are indeed the cause. Lastly, if you're not used to eating a lot of fiber, your body will have a harder time should you abruptly increase your fiber intake. Over time I believe your microbiome gets used to it. In any case, eating more fiber will result in more gas. At least that's my experience.

Wonderful! What a piece of art! Thanks for sharing @koops

I also feel conscious about making loud noises when I trip at home. @shree, about your OP trip, did you take 5-MeO while still fasting? Do you think the fast is what potentiated it? I'm curious because I also periodically practice fasting and therefore I might also try a 5-MeO trip before breaking it in the future.