
Running 50km after 82h of fasting - xavivives
http://blog.xavivives.com/post/134198815248/running-50km-after-82h-of-fasting-my-conclusions
======
xavivives
I did not see a doctor. Not before, not after. The truth is that even if I had
seen one I wouldn't take in account her opinion anyway.

The current standards for nutrition are based on a diet rich in carbohydrates.
Any response from a doctor (at least the ones I have access to) will
discourage this event. It just doesn't fit on their models. Plus they have to
play safe. I appreciate all the people who are concern about my health. I'm
doing fantastically well. Thanks.

I do believe that ketosis is the "default" state for the human being. I have
plenty of reasons for that and I'll try to explore more arguments in other
posts. Its a very broad subject and I wanted to narrow the scope.

I didn't do this experiment out of nowhere. I've been running in ketosis for
long time and I know myself pretty well. I've been reading and educating on
the subject. I'm not completely stupid. I know the risks and I know there is a
lot we don't know about. But if I've done it its because previous runs and
experiments gave me the enough confidence.

This post doesn't suppose to be a scientific study, not to give any medical
advice (I'm taking note from your comments and I'll add a warning). Its just
my experience based on what I thing should be a more commmon approach, to
focus more on the fundamentals than on a micro view.

~~~
js2
Still, it might have been interesting to have your blood work done before and
after to see what the changes were. There's compelling evidence for fasting.
See Micheal Mosley's Eat, Fast and Live Longer documentary:

[https://vimeo.com/103656060](https://vimeo.com/103656060)

Personally, I'm following a 5:2 intermittent fast this year while also
maintaining 63 mi/week running, including 9 mi on the days I fast.

~~~
xavivives
True. I'll try to get a blood test next time. What are you guys recommendation
on what to check?

~~~
js2
I am not a doctor. You should definitely talk with a doctor. But, you can
google for "health blood markers" which typically includes measuring
cholesterol and glucose to start with. For example:

[http://www.marksdailyapple.com/blood-test-
markers/](http://www.marksdailyapple.com/blood-test-markers/)

[http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/107/3/499.full](http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/107/3/499.full)

[https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cardiac-
ri...](https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cardiac-risk/)

Also, it's probably not a bad idea to measure your blood pressure regularly
which you can easily do at home.

------
jessep
I applaud the author's spirit of mad science and adventure.

As someone with a lot of doctor friends and family, I think it is pretty clear
most doctors are not familiar with the relevant research and by default give a
cautionary response which merely parrots back the status quo fears, but
they're even more risk averse due to malpractice concerns. In terms of getting
your blood work done, sure, I'll agree that seems interesting.

My father, a doctor, used to be afraid of low carb/ketosis diets, because
"bacon, cheese". Years later he read the relevant information and completely
switched camps.

Finally, self experimentation can be dangerous, sure. But that doesn't mean it
isn't valuable and interesting. Do you think people should never do
potentially dangerous things in pursuit of adventure, knowledge, truth?

~~~
tacos
Do what you want privately but the value proposition changes when you publish
your self-experimentation world-wide. More so when you promote it. And yet
more still if and when you try to profit from it.

There are clear and common ethical standards here and the blog post comes in
well under them.

~~~
jimrandomh
This is a blog post on the author's personal blog. It doesn't even have ads on
it. I really don't see a legitimate objection here. Just take the data for
what it is - a report of something one specific person was able to do, which
other peoples' physiology might or might not be able to handle, plus some
speculation about our distant evolutionary history.

~~~
tacos
> This is a blog post on the author's personal blog

No, the context is now reframed as a post on a highly-influential site, this
one. The author is now commenting here, which is great.

But "Don't try something like this without at least talking to a doctor, I
probably should have" has yet to appear on the post. Therefore I reserve the
right to state my objection.

~~~
maxerickson
Should the talking to a doctor disclaimer come with a disclaimer that you
should first make sure your doctor is competent?

And a disclaimer to make sure that the person reading the comment is competent
to assess whether their doctor is competent?

And a disclaimer that there may be errors in the disclaimers, so think for
yourself a little bit?

Personally, I'll take an article like this one where the author doesn't much
represent any of it as advice over an article that claims to give a bunch of
advice but qualifies it with a disclaimer that it might not apply, check with
an expert.

~~~
tacos
You prefer less boilerplate in this situation, I prefer more. I consulted to
law firms, perhaps you have not. Mythbusters say "don't try this at home" why
can't he?

~~~
nicky0
He can, but chooses not to.

------
runjake
A couple points:

* He ran 50 KM in 7 hours and 45 minutes, which amounts to fast walking. In real terms, he probably ran some but probably walked most of it.

* If you're going to do something like this, please do it under the supervision of a medical doctor. A 50km isn't a big deal, virtually anyone who can run a marathon can run a 50k, but people do die during this events. Respect the distance.

Edit: Here is his Strava entry for the event:
[https://www.strava.com/activities/morning-
run-436423654?utm_...](https://www.strava.com/activities/morning-
run-436423654?utm_campaign=ride_share&utm_content=4091010&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=lab.xavivives.com)

From my sloppy napkin math, it looks like he ran the distance (slowly) and
probably stopped a lot and had his device configured to pause the time when he
stopped.

I don't mean to sound down on the guy, he got out there and did 50km. And he
specifically mentions he's no athlete. I am glad he documented his experience.
But please don't use this as part of any "Couch to 50K" kind of scheme.
Ketosis doesn't work like creatine.

Edit 2: A metric/imperial conversion pace chart here: [https://www.globe-
runners.com/sites/default/program_builder_...](https://www.globe-
runners.com/sites/default/program_builder_pdf/Metric%20Pace%20Conversion%20Chart.pdf)

Edit 3: pneumatics' comment, below corrects me: "The time spent moving was
5:49. His pace, excluding the time stopped, was 11:12 min/mi.

With the elevation gain, this is most definitely running." This is a pretty
good performance for a newbie, IMHO.

For those saying it's slow, you've either never ran an ultra on rough terrain,
or you've been on the cover of running magazines.

~~~
pneumatics
This is a gnarly run. Almost 7000 ft of climbing (he gives the value in m, but
all my reference points are in feet). It appears he was not auto-pausing, but
did stop quite a bit. The time spent moving was 5:49. His pace, excluding the
time stopped, was 11:12 min/mi. With the elevation gain, this is most
definitely running.

~~~
brianwawok
To a decent runner that is nearly walking though. A record road race marathon
pace is ~4:45 min miles. A slightly above average runner can do say 8 min
miles over 26.2 miles on flats, which is only a titch under the 50k of this
race.

Trail races are slower, and 7000 feet is a decent amount of climbing.. but he
was in no danger of setting any land speed record. 15 min miles is not that
much faster than walking.

So this proves you can speed-walk an ultra in a fasted state. Which is cool
and shows how strong our bodies are. scott jurek is amazing at ultras, and a
vegan - but he definately eats and runs off sugar.

~~~
pc86
> _A slightly above average runner can do say 8 min miles over 26.2 miles on
> flats_

What is it about the running community that makes them say ridiculous things
like this?

The fastest average marathon pace I could find anywhere was 9m 6s for 20-year
old men.[0] To say that it takes only someone "slightly" above average to
maintain a pace 12% faster than that for an entire marathon is ridiculous.
Just because a lot of people do it every year doesn't mean that it's a great
accomplishment. For context, that means someone finished nearly _half an hour
sooner_.

[0] [http://www.pace-calculator.com/average-marathon-pace-by-
age-...](http://www.pace-calculator.com/average-marathon-pace-by-age-sex.php)

~~~
brianwawok
That site seems pretty bogus.

Lets pick a real race. Say the 2015 Chicago Marathon.

Let's look at men 30-34

[http://results.chicagomarathon.com/2015/?pid=list](http://results.chicagomarathon.com/2015/?pid=list)

3200 people there finished. So let's take middle, #1600: 4:11, which is 9:34
pace.

8 min pace is 3:29, which is something like finish 700 / 3200 in that age
group.

So to me, finishing in 700th place out of 3400 people in a race is "slightly
above average". But who cares, even the 9:30 pace is far above the 16 minute
pace of OP.

Realize too, that many people running a marathon are running their 1 lifetime
marathon - they never ever plan to run another. Drop all those out, and you
will find 3:30 may be about average or even a tad worse among people who are
serious runners.

~~~
pc86
> _That site seems pretty bogus._

I agree, my point was that the fastest "average" time I could find (regardless
of quality of the source) was still sufficiently slow enough compared to the
8:00 pace figure that 8:00 is in fact not slightly above average.

------
weego
The whole blog feels like a confused agenda masquerading as hand-wavey pseudo-
science. Do not like.

Ketosis is really quite well studied at this point, I don't really think this
adds anything to the mix. Also why conflate fasting and ketogenics?

~~~
kaonashi
> Also why conflate fasting and ketogenics?

He made the distinction between ketosis, a ketosis-inducing diet and fasting
as far as I could tell:

> I’m suspicious that there are big differences between nutritional ketosis
> (induced by reducing the intake of high glycemic index foods) and ketosis
> induced from fasting. In other runs done in nutritional ketosis I didn’t
> feel that energetic (but it’s hard to compare since I’ve never done it that
> far in distance). That’s something I may explore.

~~~
DrScump
Ketosis should have a uniform effect, whether induced by fasting or keto
eating. What makes the former more fatiguing, psychological effects aside, is
the lack of instantly-available free fatty acids.

------
mrits
Congrats on not dying I guess. As someone who has been around elite athletes
my whole life an article like this doesn't phase me at all. A bad diet can
throw the best athlete off her game. On the other hand, Michael Jordan can win
the NBA finals on nothing but water and flu in his stomach. There are a lot of
factors on what it takes to get through a 50K. I think a lot of us runners
could do it starving ourselves, but we'd just feel very bad the whole race.

------
justsomedood
My experience in endurance sports is with cycling, and I have a friend that
used a "ketosis" diet to help lose some weight. My understanding of the fat
burning process is that it can only happen so fast, so with fat as your fuel
source you are only able to support moderate intensity levels. This could
explain the 7h 45 min minute time for his 50km run (~31 miles).

I know if I am riding at race pace for a couple of hours and don't give myself
fuel then I am in trouble, but riding at lower intensities I can go for a much
longer time without eating as long as I have water.

------
IgorPartola
I just started training for my first marathon, and am trying to do some
reading on the subject. Hal Higdon's position is I guess what you might call
"traditional": your muscles use glycogen as the preferred energy source.
Around mile 20 is when most people deplete their glycogen and start burning
fat as the primary source of energy, but this is much less efficient,
resulting in a performance drop. If this is indeed true, then I guess it means
that if your goal is top performance, then carbs are your friend. If your goal
is fat loss, then low-carb diet plus long endurance exercise is for you. Does
that seem right?

~~~
brianwawok
I think you are conflating two things. Losing weight you do outside of races.
Eat less, exercise more - you lose weight.

Now during an actual race - do you want to burn sugar or fat? Your body has a
TON more fat, even a skinny guy has 50k calories of fat he can burn.. whereas
the same guy only has 2k calories of sugar to burn. However burning fat is
less efficient, so you are unlikely to set a speed record doing it. An ironman
is a 8-16 hour race that burns 5,6,10k calories, and all the successful people
I know do it via eating a lot of sugar during the race. In theory you COULD do
it off fat, but no one has won a race (that I am aware) doing that, so it
seems to not work as well in practice.

~~~
zimpenfish
You can, perhaps, train yourself to burn fat more efficiently which helps.

e.g. [http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/using-low-
carbohy...](http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/using-low-carbohydrate-
strategies-for-endurance-training)

~~~
IgorPartola
Cool. Though your linked article still states that peak fat burn output is
still lower than peak carb burn output and that high intensity still is best
served by carb rich diet.

~~~
DrScump
"high intensity" is _sprinting_ , not distance running.

~~~
brianwawok
Well you are burning quite a few more carbs than fat even at a fast 1/2 or
full marathon. Not sure exact switchover from more carbs to more fat is, maybe
5 or 6 hours?

~~~
DrScump
"Well you are burning quite a few more carbs than fat even at a fast 1/2 or
full marathon"

No, you aren't. Your liver can hold only so much glycogen, and you'll use that
up well before the 10-mile mark.

~~~
zimpenfish
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22417/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22417/)
suggests that an elite athlete (they're talking about 2 hour marathons) could
fuel about 1:20 of that with glycogen (~18 miles) but that they burn about
equal glycogen/fat (which would give 13 miles of glycogen.)

I suspect your 10 mile mark is probably correct for anyone below "almost-
elite".

------
folli
For a community of 'hackers' (which I assume should embrace trying out new
things and questioning traditional values), the majority of these comments
sound very negative and not constructive.

------
ErikAugust
He did it in 7:45. They don't stop the race timer because you stopped.

That's towards the back of the pack for a trail 50K with that kind of
elevation profile.

It'd be better as an experiment if we measured the author's VO2Max, his 1 mile
run time on a track, and then ran the 50K on a track. Measure ketone levels,
etc.

~~~
xavivives
My resources are limited. But given the chance I won't mind repeating it.

------
PhrosTT
I've seen people die running a half marathon. Please don't push your body to
the breaking point just for giggles. Work your way up.

~~~
bosdev
I think you have to think about how those people died. Heat exhaustion? An
underlying heart condition? I don't think they died of not having enough
nutrients, or not eating soon enough before running.

~~~
PhrosTT
Yes heat.

[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-04/news/ct-met-
ha...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-04/news/ct-met-half-
marathon-heat-0605-20110604_1_long-distance-runner-chicago-half-marathon-
spray-stations)

I'm just saying the whole "Push through the pain" adage is dangerous.

------
exelius
While this may be possible, I would worry about the effects on your liver.
Ketosis does put additional strain on the liver, and while it doesn't seem
like the side effects of extended ketosis are dangerous, there simply aren't
any studies on ultra-endurance exercise during ketosis. And while studies on
extended exercise during ketosis would be a good thing, they should be
performed by researchers and doctors who know what the risks are and can
monitor them appropriately.

IMO this is dangerous. Just because our hunter-gatherer ancestors did it
doesn't mean it's healthy for us. For all we know, this type of activity could
wreck your liver and contribute to dying in your 30s (our ancestors did not
have a long life expectancy). So even if it was a survival adaptation, it may
have ensured the survival of the herd at the cost of the individual.

~~~
dpark
> _our ancestors did not have a long life expectancy_

Historical life expectancy was skewed because of high childhood mortality. If
you look at modern hunter-gatherers, life expectancy is still in the 30s, but
life expectancy at age 15 is 54. This is still short by modern standards but
everyone isn't/wasn't dying in their 30s.

edit: Forgot link to paper:
[http://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_...](http://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf)

~~~
rhinoceraptor
Also, our life expectancy is increased even further due to modern medicine.
But that isn't a validation of modern diet and lifestyle, we're just really
good at stuff like fixing broken arms and treating infections.

------
mmaunder
I've played with ketosis. You can verify your body is in a state of ketosis
using "keto sticks" that you pee on. They change color and prove that your
body is outputting ketones. That's also what causes your breath to smell like
something died (my wife's comment).

One of the leading thinkers on this is Tim Noakes who has written some
excellent literature on the subject and is a keen runner. He became famous for
"Lore of Running" which is a tome of a book but is an excellent primer for any
runner serious about nutrition and metabolic processes.

Noakes has more recently joined the low carb/low GI movement and has some
pretty radical thinking in the area.

I would also echo some other commenters here that Ketosis is IMHO not a
healthy state and can have quite far reaching health consequences. One of the
by products of ketosis is acetone which is what makes your breath smell - so
there are some fairly radical changes in your body's chemical functioning as
it goes into starvation and survival mode.

I tend to gravitate away from radical experiments like this and more towards
what the leading edge professional athletes are doing, minus the steroids.
They have plenty of motivation to innovate in the field in a sustainable way.

~~~
madaxe_again
So, I played with ketosis and lost. 7 years ago I weighed 260lbs, having
converted a once fit and muscular physique into lard with the help of my desk
and startup. I decided to do something about this, and to simultaneously run
an experiment to determine my general metabolic rate and baseline nutritional
requirements.

To do this, I stuck myself on a fixed daily 700kcal diet, ran 15km a day, and
got on with life as usual. I measured blood sugar, weight, fat mass, resting
pulse, b.p.

Needless to say, I lost weight, fast, and was down to 180 by the time I ended
the experiment, four months later. 80% of the mass I lost was fat, 20% muscle,
my sleep apnoea was cured, and I felt good about myself for the first time in
years.

I also got some beautiful graphs out of it. By keeping the inputs all
constant, I could see my weight shifting along a curve as my metabolic
requirements shrank as I dropped mass, I could see blood pressure and glucose
moving in curves beautifully correlated with my fat mass. To that end,
everything went as planned.

About six months after this, I started being sick. I'd spend days puking and
delirious, and would then be fine for months, or weeks - came and went at
random. Several years of baffled doctors later, I diagnosed myself with gall
stones, got an ultrasound, confirmed my hypothesis, and had my gall bladder
removed last year. Turns out that having a prolonged low calorie diet pissed
my duodenum and gall bladder off mightily, and they grew a huge cluster of
stones in short order. I'm seemingly fine now, after five years of misery.

Long story short, you're not actually invincible, don't learn this the hard
way like I did.

~~~
bstrand
Sounds like you played with _starvation_ and lost.

Ketosis does not require or imply a severe caloric deficit. It requires a very
low carbohydrate intake, but you can eat a maintenance level of calories and
be in ketosis.

None of the standard guidance (e.g. [1]) for a weight loss program using a
ketogenic diet advocates such a severe deficit. Presuming you're a male of
average height, 700 kcal is about a 75% deficit. By all appearances, that was
the source of your troubles, not keto per se.

I'm glad you recovered all right!

[1] [http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/](http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/)

------
JeremyNT
Certainly an interesting experiment.

As somebody who only engages in "moderate" endurance activities (bicycle rides
~100 miles) I can relate the difference diet makes for me on long activities.

Endurance athletes speak of a thing called the "bonk"[0] - a point beyond
which continued activity becomes much more difficult. This state is due to the
exhaustion of glycogen stores in the body.

I've encountered this only a few times, but it's a really interesting
phenomenon. In times I do not prepare well enough, I just run out of "energy."
Everything gets harder, and I don't recover from it. It's not the case that I
cannot continue, but continued exertion feels much more difficult. I feel
mental fatigue as well, and I have felt "light headed" in this state.

This is why it is recommended to consume carbohydrates when engaging in
endurance activities. It's not that you _can 't_ continue on ketosis, it's
that you continue in a very suboptimal manner, and in something like cycling
(where you are moving quite quickly) a sensation of light-headedness can be
exceptionally dangerous.

Incidentally, the rate of depletion of glycogen stores is relative to the
intensity of the activity. Operating further below the aerobic threshold will
allow one to deplete the glycogen stores more slowly. If the OP is in good
shape, this probably played a role in his success, as he might be running at a
less intense pace than he would be capable of were he consuming carbohydrates.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wall)

------
joss82
Hacking your own body can lead to health issues obviously. But...

This may be the way everybody runs in the future.

A bit like Cliff Young[1], a potato farmer that won the Sydney-Melbourne
ultra-marathon.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_(athlete)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_\(athlete\))

------
powera
Could all the people without medical knowledge please stop saying that their
lack-of-medical-knowledge make them smarter than the guy that actually did
this? Your requests for various random chemical levels are stupid. We have
done science for thousands of years before blood tests were invented.

~~~
ygjb-dupe
Yeah, we did science for thousands of years, but medical science has had (and
still has) to contend with pseudo science and snake oil continuously (for a
modern take, see homeopathy).

An anecdote about a personal experience in relation to an exercise and diet
regime doesn't make a person smart, and asking questions about the experience
doesn't denigrate the author of the anecdote.

Weight loss and nutrition are the bogey man of the health industry, and anyone
claiming a new, better way of doing things is inviting harsh criticism - as
long as the idea is under attack and not the person, there is no harm done.

~~~
dang
> _Weight loss and nutrition are the bogey man of the health industry_

They've become a bogeyman of internet forums too. Throw in weight lifting for
the trifecta.

------
matt_wulfeck
I'd like to add my own data points for low-carb/ketosis and exercise. In the
beginning it was very hard and I felt extremely lethargic (typically 3 to 4
days after switching to < 30g carbs a day). My exercise at the time was 2
miles on the treadmill and 20 minutes of full body weight lifting (squats,
etc).

The worse I ever felt was during that time (3-4 days in). After that I would
slowly improve and within a few weeks could almost reach my normal max, though
never exceeded them. The bonus part was that I was melting off pounds of fat.

This was just my experience. I found that salty drinks (such as chicken stock)
helped a lot when first beginning low carb to prevent the lethargic feeling ~3
days in.

------
petke
Ketosis sounds nice and all but it makes ones breath stink bad. I think id
rather be fat.

~~~
mahouse
I think the vinegar-scented sweat is even worse...

------
cafard
Not something I would try, or would have tried at what I suppose is his age. I
will say a runner in training can get into ketosis with no need for fasting--
visiting the downwind side of marathon finish chutes would probably convince
you of this.

I did "hit the wall" a couple of times, but my diet leading up to the race was
no different from that before other races. In one case it was inadequate
training. In a couple of others it was setting out at too fast a pace. Now,
that is not to say that I felt good in the others--I felt awful but bearably
awful.

------
jordinl
I think the most important factor should not be whether you can do it or not,
but if you can perform better in ketosis than those who are not in ketosis.

~~~
lamby
In Ironman and related circles it is conceded that performance is decreased,
but the reduced calorie requirements in races often mean better results due to
less, err, gut complications.

------
merpnderp
I know the 4 months I went on low/no carbs, I had never felt better, had more
energy, or lost weight faster. I lost 43lbs, saw my cholesterol and
triglycerides go from marginal to perfect, and ate as much as I wanted.

Course then my gallbladder stopped pumping and I haven't tried it again,
although I don't see why I couldn't.

------
kazinator
I once tried just 16 miles after just 36 hours of fasting. It was interesting.
I don't remember a whole lot, other than that it was a serene kind of
experience. I was in quite a different mental state from the run-of-the mill
run.

------
acconrad
Funny that this gets upvoted so high and a more reasonable article that was
posted in the same day
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931349](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931349))
did not.

I've done ketosis, high carb, and moderate carb, and the fact is that while
ketosis can work for some, it can be damaging to others. I tried keto for a
while and it raised my fasting blood glucose levels to pre-diabetic levels. As
soon as I went back to a moderate carb intake, my blood glucose was back to
near-ideal. Obviously you should take further tests (HbA1C) to be absolutely
sure if you're at risk, but it's not all smiles and rainbows for keto, you
really need to make sure your body can actually adapt properly to the changes
that are going on in your body as a result of the diet that promotes keto.

~~~
nswanberg
More people find articles discussing what is possible more interesting than a
summary article. Xavi was interested in ketosis, read about the subject, saw
that runners like Tim Olsen had done well on a paleo-type diet and wondered
about long-distance running in ketosis, followed through on the experiment,
and wrote it up. To me that is the ideal thing to post here.

------
maxerickson
Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10919375](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10919375)

------
sshbio
«And they were hunting because didn’t have food in the first place…»

I laughed at this one.

------
tacos
I'm not sure if this is pseudoscience or anecdata but I'm sure I could find
six doctors saying that this is a horrible idea.

From the post: "I couldn’t find any publication about ultra distances and
significant amount of fasting."

This is not a medical study. This is an individual and could be anything from
simply dumb and dangerous to body dysmorphia. Not everything can be safely
hacked, friends.

~~~
bosdev
The only fundamental difference between this and a 'proper' scientific
experiment is the p value. All scientific experiments have cavets, and all
have a probability their finding could be erroneous. Of course, no one should
write a textbook based on this one guys self-reported experience. But,
assuming he is accurately reporting it, it is evidence that this is _possible_
which is a very important thing to discover.

Yes, it may only be possible in 0.01% of the population, that is the type of
thing which a larger-scale study can evaluate, but whatever they find, it will
be an interesting result which would have been less likely if he hadn't shown
it could be done.

~~~
tacos
Nonsense. A proper scientific experiment would have controls and independent
results and medical oversight and calibrated measurement equipment and a clear
definition of what's attempting to be proved.

This is a guy fooling around and blogging for attention. Dangerously so. p=1,
no scientific method = anecdata. His conclusions? Pseudoscience. It's
dangerous to him personally and it's damaging to society broadly to promote
such without caveats. So I'm providing them.

~~~
bosdev
He has gathered more data than had he not done it, or not blogged about it.
You're right that it doesn't meet any scientific criteria for 'fact' yet, but
it is data of a sort, and may be a helpful step on the road to the furtherance
of science.

~~~
reality_czech
Wow. I didn't realize "doing random stuff while taking no measurements, and
then later writing about it" qualified as "the furtherance of science." A
sample size of 1, combined with an attitude of ignorance and machismo, helps
explain why "medical remedies" like bleeding people with leeches and giving
them liquid mercury to drink endured for hundreds of years despite no actual
evidence that they worked or were safe.

Reality check: nutritional deficits lead to cognitive deficits. The Atkins
diet is known to lead to heart disease, which Atkins himself died from.

