Is there a need to balance body chemistry 24/7?

[robwhite]

Something that has confused me recently is the desire to balance one's body chemistry all the time. Seems like a stupid question, but just think about it for a sec - the body goes through circadian phases in its metabolism and is designed to be UNbalanced most of the time, so why not only push your body chemistry at the appropriate times of day?.

I'll elaborate.

According to what i've read from Dr Revici's work and Guy Schenkers work, amongst others:

MORNING / DAYTIME = catabolic/sympathetic/slightly fast oxidation (i.e all serum acidic conditions);
EVENING / NIGHTIME = anabolic/parasympathetic/slightly slower oxidation (i.e. all serum alkaline conditions).

If, for example, you are a parasympathetic like myself, it makes sense to push your body chemistry more towards sympathetic activity during the day, but, in my mind, absolutely no sense to do this in the evening when you SHOULD be in a parasympathetic state anyway!

Guy Schenker only advises giving parasympathetic clients sympathetic-activating supplements during the day, and not in the evning for this very reason. In my personal experience, i found that having sympathetic-stimulating foods in the evneing actually makes it harder for me to sleep.

[Deleted]

I think the logic makes sense but of course the proof is in the blood pudding. So, I think I will break out my DCRs and see if maybe I don't do better with a little extra carbs in my meal.

I am a para dominant, fast oxidizer. My para side, and even my fast oxidizer side, are pretty strong so I know I would not do well to eat a "carb type" meal with light meats, little fat, and lots of carbs. My allergies would act up and I would wake up in the middle of the night because I am hungry.

What I have done, which I think has helped my adrenal recovery as well as my sleep, is to eat a pretty normal meal but substitute the butter I usually use with olive oil or avocado. I figure that the saturated fat at night will overstimulate my adrenals.

Now maybe i'll check if I can do better with a bit more legumes.

[Deleted]

Just thought of something as I opened my refrigirator and noticed a carton of eggs. I think the answer to the question is yes, there is always a need to balance, what changes though is where exactly the balance point (or fulcrum) is. I have noticed that on nights when I have not worked out, if I eat an anabolic meal of soft boiled eggs, spinach, and of course butter I get leg cramps. I am pushing anabolic, which using the logic from above, should be a good thing but because I am a para and I am already in a fairly anabolic state, I pushed too much.

At that point, I am probably disrupting the calcium/potasium balance within the cell and creating a condition which is unproductive. Too much of anything...

So I would say that yes you want to balance but you want to use the DCRs to check where balance is.

* I like the analogy used in MT of a balance with one arm representing carbs and the other fat. When the fulcrum is closer to the fat side, more fat is needed to bring the lever to balance. When it is closer to the carb side, then more carbs are needed. As a para, my fulcrum seems to be consistently closer to the fat side. When I eat more fat and protein, i'm not trying to become sympathetic, I'm trying to reach balance which just so happens to require me to push towards sympathisizing my system.

[robwhite]

Thanks for your insight md. Yeah, that terms it better - the fulcrum for where balance is is relative to the time of day. I suppose what i was getting at was it makes sense to try and push chemistry the opposite direction during the times of the day when the opposing state is required (e.g. a parasympathetic pushing towards sympathetic during the morning through to afternoon), but not at the times of the day when your imbalance happens to be the right state to be in anyway. How much you need to push chemistry, IF you need to at all (depending on the time if day, you might alreadt have the right balance at that moment), is all relative to where the fulcrum is at that time of day.



If you are parasympathetic, then i agree eating a parasympathising meal in the evening (i.e. light meats, low fat, high carb) would be very unbalancing and probably push you right off the end of the scale, upseting your sleep and cauising health problems. However, eating a normal mixed meal in the evening would leave you in the same parasypathetic state you naturally are at which could be ideal for the parasypathetic state evening / nightime requires as part of natural circadian rhythm. So i think you hit the nail on the head with moving towards a more balanced meal in the evenings. A sympathetic on the other hand could getaway with eating fairly normally (i.e 'balanced' meals) during the day, but in the evneing would need to eat heavily parasympathising meals in the eveing.

Of course, the DCR's would help confirm or refute this theory.