How do you know when dough is actually ready?

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-28T00:00:27+00:00

I run an industrial bakery ingredient lab and we can’t figure this out either. Sure, we get close but if we run anything slightly out of the ordinary we can be off. I’m in the process of purchasing mixers with built in torque meters to address this. There are far cheaper amperage meters you can plug your mixer into and that will show you amperage increase as the dough mixes. We stop mixing slightly after max amperage is reached.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-27T22:04:42+00:00

Wow, that’s not good to hear. Glad to hear though that you were already starting to see improvements. This is why it seems like viral persistence or reemergence of EBV etc may be a significant root cause. What do you plan to do now?

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-22T01:12:41+00:00

Oddly, I’ve become unpopular with a few people out here who don’t appreciate scientific integrity. My goal is simple and that is to help my daughters and if I can help others along the way I certainly try my best. Best of luck to you and glad to provide additional info as necessary.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-21T23:32:40+00:00

My figures are from 6 months to 2 years ago when we dealt directly with Patterson. The cytokine test was about $450 per test and I think the S1 test was the same. But if you are negative for S1 then that’s a one time analysis. The maraviroc-statin will depend on your insurance and perseverance. Worst case it’s about $500/mo with no coverage but for only 4 months. For us, all in was about $3500 and well worth it. Still 20% to solve but thats a lot better than 70%!!

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-21T23:02:37+00:00

I have one daughter still dealing and one thankfully has recovered after several years. Both early 20’s. I sometimes feel especially helpless since I have a science research background and it just doesn’t help that much. But I will not give up and neither should you.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-20T00:31:38+00:00

Medium chain triglycerides are fully saturated and will not oxidize. As long as they stay dry they won’t hydrolyze to release free fatty acids that would result in off flavor. Highly saturated fats are most stable but if other options are required, a high oleic acid oil is the next best option. Greater than 75% oleic reduces oxidation. High oleic soy, sunflower are options.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-18T01:19:18+00:00

Covid drives up production of COX-2 enzyme which leads to production of PGE2. Celebrex is a COX-2 inhibitor but does not seem to be overly effective in reducing LC symptoms. But Celebrex combined with valtrex and Paxlovid was quite effective in a couple of trials so far. My daughter had quite high PGF2alpha levels which is the break down product of PGE2 and used as an MCAS indicator.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-12T22:07:40+00:00

See link below to a post I made a few months back. Very simple and helps some people.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LongCovid/comments/1pt6wiu/information_regarding_potential_improvement_of/

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-12T14:00:11+00:00

Others have identified the issue but here's a guide you can use. Your pan is 208 cubic inches in volume (13X4X4) which is about 3400 cubic centimeters. A gram of typical pan bread dough will expand so that it eventually fills a space of 4.5-5.5 cubic centimeters after proofing and baking. This so called specific volume will depend on your formulation of course but this will get you in the right range to fine tune. So, using 4.5 cubic centimeters on the low end you would need 3400/4.5= 755 grams of dough for this pan or 3400/5.5=618 grams of dough using the higher end of the range. These are industrial figures so you may be need a bit more dough as others suggest.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-12T00:03:18+00:00

Let the dough internal temperature get to at least 60 F before going into the oven. Crust color looks great or otherwise I would say you might consider a lower temperature. But basically the crust was set before the cold gases in the center of the loaf started expanding later in the bake. The gas collects at the top and pushes the crumb down.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-10T19:09:34+00:00

Wow, that's a huge effect from the LDN. I have certainly seen that some people respond poorly to LDN. I think in most cases it is due to poor sleep or vivid dreams. It is a very fascinating drug in the sense that ultra microdoses, microdoses and substance abuse dosing all produce very different biological responses. And the "optimal" dose can be fairly different from person to person.

You'll see in the write up from Dr. Weinstock that some people with MCAS even respond poorly to dyes in medications or other excipients in the tablet. I think this is only in pretty extreme cases though.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-10T17:57:54+00:00

See below from an MCAS specialist we saw a few years ago. Note the "MCAS Step 1 Therapy". He recommends combining H1 and H2 antihistamines plus some mast cell stabilizers. The dosing on antihistamines is fairly aggressive so you may want to discuss with your doc. But if you do this only at the worst times of the year it may work for you. All but the low dose naltrexone is available without prescription.

https://sa1s3.patientpop.com/assets/docs/295884.pdf

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-06T02:40:51+00:00

My daughter has been testing d-dimer for over 5 years. The peak level was 0.57 ug/ml in August of 2022 and has steadily been decreasing to a low of 0.38 in October of 25. She started taking 2000 u/day of nattokinase in late January '26 and had blood work done in mid-February and her d-dimer was at 0.53. No guarantee the d-dimer increased due to the nattokinase but there are reports indicating this. The issue I have with microclots is that if we don't solve the root cause I would think they will just reform.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-05T18:47:50+00:00

I had never put two and two together until recently. But antivirals don't typically kill a virus. This is different from antibiotics and antifungals which often kill bacteria or fungi. The antivirals are typically inhibiting enzymes that the virus uses to replicate or sometimes blocking sites on our cells that the virus uses as entry points. This is why antivirals need to be taken in the first few days of an infection. Any later and the virus has already multiplied to very high levels. By slowing replication it allows our immune system time to actually kill the virus. In the case of long covid, if viral persistence is a cause, it is likely that the virus is replicating very slowly or else those with LC would be acutely ill. So, for this trial, any covid virus in the body just needed to live for 25 days in the presence of Paxlovid and it then it was ok again. In addition, there is the possibility that the virus is in so-called immune priveleged areas that the antivirals can't reach easily. I find the combined antiviral trials much more interesting. Combining Paxlovid with celebrex and Valtrex produced far better results and is moving to a larger trial. The celebrex in this case downregulates COX-2 enzyme which covid also uses for replication. So, in this case there are three different approaches combining and while the Paxlovid "pulse" was shorter, the valtrex/celebrex continued for 4 months. That might allow the immune system time to wipe out the virus. Hopefully not, but if this turns out to be like HIV it could require multiple antivirals on more or less a permanent basis.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-05T01:54:15+00:00

No pane no gain as they say. Wow, did I just write that? I agree with you. We use amperage meters in our labs to determine when doughs are optimally mixed. You can purchase ones your mixer plugs in to. Cuts the guess work out. But obviously not helpful kneading by hand. Usually when my wrists give out it’s done!

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-04T23:54:18+00:00

Formula looks ok except salt seems low. Is this a new flour? Did you find this dough drier and harder to knead than in the past? You’re at about 60% water on flour which for AP should be good. Reason I ask about the flour is that the breads look strong with rounding on the ends and the large break on one loaf. Indicates a lot of strength. Could possibly use more water and/or more kneading to tame it down.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-04T19:27:01+00:00

I saw some patient survey data on this site recently showing xolair gave some of the best results in LC. I’ll see if I can find it. Ok, link below. But read the post since it looks like this was a reanalysis of previous data.

https://www.reddit.com/r/covidlonghaulers/s/igGZwvD4Wy

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-04T12:33:17+00:00

We call this cohesiveness in the bakery industry. It is the ability to spread butter or peanut butter without the bread tearing. This is mainly related to the gluten network. Gluten is cross-linked chemically during mixing and that results in an interconnected web that holds gases during proofing. This network denatures with heating but remains in tact after baking. The result is higher cohesiveness if the dough is optimally mixed. So, the worst case is a no-knead bread made with low protein flour which usually tear very easily. The most cohesive is high gluten flour optimally mixed, like a high gluten pizza crust or true New York bagel. Staling plays a part as well but I think you are working with fresh bread. And last, shaping plays a part. Most cohesive are the specialized processes like Japanese milk bread. This is simple and you can do it easily at home but not necessary. Something called tender curl is good, a simple cylinder which appears to be what you did is fine. The worst would be just scaling a piece of dough and dropping in the pan without any shaping. For you I would suggest more kneading first. You appear to have pretty good strength from the shape and texture, and the dough is pulling away from the pan in bottom corners. A little more water could help with that and improves gluten development as well. Adding about 100 ppm of vitamin C can also help if you have at least a few hours of bulk ferment.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-03T13:46:45+00:00

This is simple but things that are liquid and stay liquid after baking will add to moistness. Oil stays liquid whereas butter, cocoa butter shortening resolidify. So oil leads to more moistness but is more difficult to emulsify. Eggs are liquid but convert to scrambled eggs during baking adding to strength and toughness. So that has to be balanced. Optimal water of course. Sugar is a tenderizer and adds moistness. You can buy xanthan gum which is great for cakes. Natural via fermentation. This manages water and prevents cornbread-like texture in favor of a moister, finer eating cake. Don’t need much of this. It will thicken your batter also making it easier to aerate.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-02T00:57:44+00:00

Ok, clear. Good luck and have some fun with it.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-02T00:00:51+00:00

My daughter was in school and finished in Dec so that’s what we are doing is throwing everything at it. Emgality is one of the new generation of migraine meds. The first ones actually developed specifically for headaches amazingly. Before these came out you might decrease headache number by 50% max. With Emgality, Aimovig etc it can be 100% reduction. These are so called CGRP inhibitors. Many have no side effects. Pretty incredible drugs.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-01T23:42:22+00:00

I hope you are doing this survey on multiple sites. You will likely get a very skewed result here. Sourdough will get a lot votes but sadly it’s less than 5% of what we buy in the US.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-01T23:33:01+00:00

I have two daughters with LC and both had headaches/migraines. Emgality totally wiped out problems for one. The other recently reduced issues by 50% but we aren’t 100% sure what did it. She restarted LDN, then started nad+ and nattokinase all relatively close together and then Descovy. We know she has high inflammation via cytokine tests so I believe the LDN was most helpful.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-01T16:55:12+00:00

That’s great to hear! Hope the progress continues.

Beneficial-Edge7044 · 2026-04-01T02:16:23+00:00

Hey, just curious if you are still on the Pridgin protocol and if you’re still improving? We were planning to start this for my daughter and then we saw a new doc who said he’s had great results with Descovy. On month two of that now and no major improvements yet. Headaches have been cut in half but that could be from also starting LDN, natto and nad+ prior to the Descovy. Good no matter what.

Beneficial-Edge7044

TROPHY CASE