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Jennifer- how long do you steam the fennel bulb?

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Less than ten minutes, five to seven maybe. That depends on how much crunch you want left. It is edible raw too.

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Thx, Jennifer!

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Love the fennel. Haven't had any for a while, maybe I will be inspired to get some! Also good raw in a salad

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Jennifer you are complicated mess!

And I am glad that you are doing a little bit better today! all this research is paying off!

so I hesitate to say anything because I know you have researched all this stuff extensively and my knowledge is a bit superficial. but I can't help wondering about carotenoids being converted to retinoids, ie vitamin A, I thought this process was pretty inefficient especially if the gut was damaged. although I see that you touch on alcoholics liver is being overly efficient at some part of this process?

Anyway I am just questioning thinking of the carotenoids as the same as straight up Vitamin A. For myself, I find I have to actually take a vitamin A supplement, as carotenoids do not do the trick for me. But in many ways I am opposite of most people! more on that later...

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It is a gene change caused by Estei Barr Virus and maybe Sars-CoV-2 does similar. Retinoic acid causes differentiation of skin and blood vessel cells to a form that the virus can infect. The gene change remains after the viral infection is resolved, but the over conversion of vitamin A and carotenoids continues relentlessly, and the excess would vary with the person's intake.

My intake was very generous as I used to take a one-a-day vitamin and eat a carrot every day plus other carotenoid foods.

My health needs are complex anyway because of gene changes from birth. Alcohol use may have affected the sperm DNA. Vaccine injury may add to the liver change risks and other drug reactions that are bad like akathisia may involve retinoid excess too.

This is a newer area of research. Most research on Retinoid Toxicidty is related to medication or supplement excess, not internal overactivation, other than seen in alcoholism.

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EBV raises its ugly head... just recently have become a bit aware of EBV, fascinating how sneaky it is. Yes, let's thank the alcoholics for being our guinea pigs!

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JD - Once again, promiscuous and vulgar things can have side effects, good and bad.

COX-2 (inducible isoform) generates prostaglandins that mediate inflammation and pain in sites throughout the body.

COX-1 (constitutive isoform) generates prostaglandins that are involved in the protection of gastrointestinal mucosa.

Since COX-1 is responsible for the protective and homeostatic action of prostaglandins (GI Tract), COX inhibitors that also inhibit isoform COX-1 have gastric side effects.

COX-1 inhibition can lead to gastrointestinal erosions, and renal and hepatic insufficiency.

It would seem your GI issue may lie with COX-1 inhibitors such as Boswellic acid, Betulinic acid, Resveratrol, Kaempferol and Quercetin. The latter two being main metabolites of fennel.

Foeniculum vulgare: the main metabolites in fennel show a higher IC50 for COX-1 than for COX-2. (See Table 2 in the study, Kaempferol and Quercetin are listed)

Crescenzi MA, D'Urso G, Piacente S, Montoro P. UPLC-ESI-QTRAP-MS/MS Analysis to Quantify Bioactive Compounds in Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) Waste with Potential Anti-Inflammatory Activity. Metabolites. 2022 Jul 27;12(8):701. doi: 10.3390/metabo12080701. PMID: 36005573; PMCID: PMC9414302. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9414302/

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Argh, it double posted my reply and then deleted both instead of one.

I don't have a problem with fennel bulb. The greens I wanted to avoid to reduce carotenoids.

I did develop a problem with fennel seeds eaten or in a strorng tea though.

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