A Better Cinnamon

February 15, 2026

I was talking to my mom last night when she casually mentioned something she'd recently learned: there are two types of cinnamon, and one can be hard on the liver. Wait, what? Really? I use cinnamon daily in my coffee. Since moving to Portugal, I've been drinking instant coffee, which isn't great, but cinnamon and milk make it tolerable. Back in the States, I had a wonderful coffee maker with a hopper on top that ground the beans on the fly. I loved that machine. After ten years—and just before…

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Easing Off the Throttle

February 1, 2026

Looks like I'm back on track. I submitted bloodwork earlier Saturday. The results came back the same day, but I waited until Sunday morning to open them. Creatine kinase dropped from off-the-charts high—1123 U/L to 83 U/L. The normal range is range 46–171 U/L. Overall, the bloodwork was good. • CK normalized • Kidney function stable • No lingering muscle damage Clear confirmation that I overdid it in the gym—and that stopping fixed it. The correction worked. What;s still concerning CRP is 3.10…

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Chemo Blue Balls

January 27, 2026

Today was supposed to be episode four of chemo season two. Instead, it turned into a reminder that some setbacks are self-inflicted. In a previous post, I wrote about the pain I’ve been dealing with. Turns out, part of it is on me. On Friday, I did an upper-body workout and pushed too hard. I’ve been trying to keep things conservative—only two gym sessions a week, low weight, and only during my good week. Mondays are lower body. Fridays are upper body. Simple. Controlled. Sensible. Or so I…

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Fasting, Autophagy, and Chemo

January 25, 2026

What Autophagy Actually Is Autophagy is your body's cellular recycling program. When you go without eating for an extended period, your cells start breaking down old, damaged, or worn-out parts and reusing them for energy or repairs. It's not some exotic new discovery—your body does this naturally at a low level all the time. Now, here's an important distinction I need to clear up: autophagy and ketosis are not the same thing, though they often get lumped together. Ketosis is a metabolic state…

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Red Cabbage, Arugula, and the Chemistry That Matters

January 25, 2026

After learning how to properly prepare broccoli—chop, wait, cook gently—I assumed the lesson ended there. End of story. It doesn't. Cruciferous vegetables don't naturally contain large amounts of sulforaphane or indoles in their active form. Instead, they store precursors called glucosinolates. Myrosinase is the enzyme that converts those precursors into biologically active compounds when the plant is damaged by cutting, chewing, or crushing. Myrosinase doesn't have to come from the same…

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Cooking Broccoli the Wrong Way

January 24, 2026

While researching nutrition strategies to put my body in the strongest possible position to fight cancer again, cruciferous vegetables consistently rose to the top. I still have to slow down to pronounce it correctly: [kroo-sif-er-uhs]. This does not mean these foods "kill cancer." They don't. What the evidence supports is more restrained: cruciferous vegetables contain compounds that can modulate pathways involved in cancer growth, detoxification, inflammation, and cellular stress. In other…

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Omega-3 as a Chemo Tool

January 20, 2026

As season 2 of chemo cycles began, I wanted a tool to help me decide when and what to eat. I built a simple chemo helper to track these foods, supplements, and timing across each cycle. Today, I wanted to learn more about omega-3s from food. What are the benefits of Omega-3s, and why only on certain days? Why omega-3 matters Omega-3s (specifically EPA and DHA from food) help during chemo because they address what treatment stresses most after the drugs stop circulating. Used at the right time,…

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