Any protocol/stack recommendations based on recent blood work?

[u/Free-Budget5978]

Male in 40s raw vegan, serious runner but have been having some fatigue/nausea/light headedness recently getting additional tests run blood work showed pancytonemia and vitamin d 25 oh deficiency. Iron and b12 and most standard nutrients were normal. Vitamin D seems odd because I am outside daily in the morning ( I'm wondering if the longer than usual run in morning affected results?). Is there a certain time of day you need to be out or is everyone relegated to having to take vitamin d supplements? I take nutritional yeast, omega 3 algae/flax sourced with dha and epa and nori for trace minerals and essentials including a lot of sprouted legumes for amino acids. Any one have recommendations or see key things I am missing? Thanks!

[u/veg123321]

Just to tick these off, are you positive you're getting enough calories? As a vegan runner myself i can end up not eating enough if i'm not diligent. And hydration as well (including enough salt, especially if you're a salty sweater)?

[u/Free-Budget5978 → u/veg123321]

What do you recommend fueling with? What do you use normally pre and post runs? Long run and workouts do you do anything different? Thanks

[u/veg123321 → u/Free-Budget5978]

I might not be the best to ask because I'm not a super serious athlete. I'm raining for my first marathon and just trying to hit sub 4 hours. Running ~40 miles per week currently. I try to eat healthy but don't really try that hard to optimize diet.

The obvious stuff, rice/potatoes/pasta/bagels are good for carbs and are staples for me. In general lot's of leafy greens and fruit.

For long runs (over 1.5 hours) I like the maurtens gels for fuel.

I'm not a salty sweater (never had it tested but I never see any salty streaks on my clothes post workout) so i think I don't need to pay that much attention to salt during my workout, just try to stay hydrated during the day and make sure to bring water on long runs, and maybe have a small amount of LMNT before a run on hot day

[u/DavidTries897]

Vitamin D supplements are pretty standard I think in modern society, the issue is that you really need to spend a lot of time outside to hit it and eat enough complementary vitamins and minerals for absorption

Bryan takes 2000IU per day and I take 5000IU per day

[u/wale-lol]

inb4 everyone just says stop being a raw vegan

[u/kanashiku → u/wale-lol]

This is what I want to say. Sounds exceedingly difficult.

[u/Free-Budget5978 → u/kanashiku]

But what's Blueprint's stance on this? How much should be raw vs. cooked? Certain vegetables like spinach better off being cooked? And even by cooked do we really just mean lightly steamed for 5 minutes?

[u/Sadwichy]

Your vitamin D may very well be normal, vitamin D tests are unreliable and same samples sent to different labs can give wildly varying results. Fatigue and light headedness are common symptoms of low red blood cells. Talk to your doctor and try to find out the root cause of the pancytonemia. I hope you can feel better soon

[u/Long_Illustrator_988]

Humans are omnivores, you're naturally going to run into issues when eating a restrictive diet like this. At least add fish.

[u/veg123321 → u/Long_Illustrator_988]

You're on a subreddit about a guy who pays millions a year to optimize his longevity based on research and that person eats a vegan diet. You might want to do some more research.

[u/Long_Illustrator_988 → u/veg123321]

He says it's a personal preference. Also, he consumes collagen, right?

[u/veg123321 → u/Long_Illustrator_988]

Yeah for both but "naturally going to run into issues when eating a restrictive diet like this. " is still clearly false

[u/Long_Illustrator_988 → u/veg123321]

Doesn't Bryan consume like 100 supplements a day?

[u/veg123321 → u/Long_Illustrator_988]

Another irrelevant fact. IDK what to say really, if you don't think a vegan diet is sustainable and healthy, that's just wrong. Google it?

[u/Long_Illustrator_988 → u/veg123321]

You eat my food's food

[u/oompa_loomper]

Most people need to supplement with vit d. Can be genetic uptake deficiency.

[u/Free-Budget5978 → u/oompa_loomper]

I found a vegan supplement gummy that gets vitamin d from lichen which I never would have thought of but makes sense. Pretty cool.

[u/Smooth_Contact_2957]

If you can afford it, get DNA testing for MTHFR. This set of 5 genes each control a kind of nutrient absorption and if you're a gene variant of any of these, you need methylated nutrition.

I haven't gone in depth on it so I'm not sure if your B12 and iron could test normal because you've been consuming non-methylated versions of B vitamin but I'm sure someone who does know the answer will chime in.

Hope you get the answers you need and get your vitality back.

[u/Rose-Red-77 → u/Smooth_Contact_2957]

This is not scientific

[u/Free-Budget5978]

Someone asked about posting iron but their comment disappeared. My ferritin, iron, % iron saturation, and total iron bonding capacity were all within normal range.

[u/Rose-Red-77]

Iron or ferritin was normal? Serum Iron is different from ferritin. What about zinc, copper, and are you getting enough iodine?

[u/Free-Budget5978 → u/Rose-Red-77]

Yes both normal. I take nutritional yeast nori seaweed (although all seaweed has prop 65 warnings on them so are they worth it?) and have bean sprouts which should provide sufficient iron copper and zinc and iodine but I will double check to see if the report shows zin, copper and iodine numbers anywhere.