How Can I Improve Glycogen Storage?

[freyasam]

Such interesting info! Bp you're always doing something interesting and you've had some great breakthroughs.
I just wanted to add feedback :
the liver fixing stuff like k2, taurine, glycine, caffeine is making me feel noticeably better in spite of the silicon dioxide etc in the capsules (which I'm ignoring for now as not planning to take permanently).
Low fat stopped working for me overnight when my stress levels went up.
Less liquid is helping too.
The suggestion to accompany sugar with 300mg b1 / or some magnesium is working very well.

Great to hear the liver supps are helping, sueq! What dosages of K2, taurine, glycine and caffeine are you at?

 

[SQu]

I'm having 3g taurine at bedtime, 3-6 tbs gelatin daily, the caffeine in 2 heaped tbs coffee (200mg?? Hope so!) plus some transdermally - maybe about 70mg goes on my skin this way, not sure how much gets through but I do really like how it feels. Another 40mg in a cold remedy along with aspirin. K2 is a bit pathetic at I think only 1000ug (but I'll check that) - nevertheless I feel better for it.
Edit: no it's even more pathetic - 100ug, overpriced and sure to contain more expensive sand than actual k2 and yet I do feel it.

 

[Mastemah]

Have you tried progestE and/or vit e (like lotion crafters)?

 

[Philomath]

Every morning I make like 10 cookies from gelatin, sugar, salt, cocoa powder and coconut oil (heat in in the microwave for 30sec if its solid). Mix it in a bowl into some kind of paste, put in on a plate in the fridge and it becomes solid. I eat one every hour or so with some carrot for digestion. Takes 10 seconds to eat and I get 60g of protein per day from those alone.

These sound great! I might even be able to get my daughters to get more protein that way! Any rough measurements? 1/2 cup gelatin? 1/4 cup? Thanks!

 

[Peata]

I *think* my glycogen storage is improving since I cut out starch. I seem to be sleeping through the night for the last week and not waking up with the adrenaline. It's so much nicer this way.

It could be that I'm just in a better place in my cycle though. I'll keep experimenting.

 

[freyasam]

Nice, Peata. Please keep us posted. Are you replacing the starch with fruit?

 

[Peata]

Nice, Peata. Please keep us posted. Are you replacing the starch with fruit?

Yes. Fruit and juices. And some white sugar.

 

[Peata]

I still don't think i'm using sugar as well as i should be. Two times now, I've had the adrenaline rush/need for food as I was trying to settle down and go to sleep (as opposed to being awakened in night). So I eat 2 bites of a lowfat string cheese and drink some orange juice and go to sleep. I sleep all night without waking.

It's nice to sleep all night, but now I'm getting the adrenaline before bed. I still have to eat something every 2 hours, can maybe stretch it to 3. But by the time I need to sleep, I need to eat again.

So that's my experience lately.

Did you get your fructose yet? Has there been any change in hunger?

 

[freyasam]

Yeah, it's very common for me to eat a ton before bed, lie down, and the adrenaline drives up hunger and I have to get up to eat again.

The stress response of hunger has just been unbearable for me lately. It's getting worse

I can't get fructose powder , or just about any other supplement, here in Mexico. I'm considering moving back to the US, though that thought is depressing to me. Don't know what else to do. Food and sun alone aren't enough to make me better

 

[Peata]

Yeah, it's very common for me to eat a ton before bed, lie down, and the adrenaline drives up hunger and I have to get up to eat again.

The stress response of hunger has just been unbearable for me lately. It's getting worse

I can't get fructose powder , or just about any other supplement, here in Mexico. I'm considering moving back to the US, though that thought is depressing to me. Don't know what else to do. Food and sun alone aren't enough to make me better

Sorry to hear things are worse.

I don't know if what you're having is similar or if this can help in any way, but during my worst bouts of insulin resistance, I had insatiable hunger. Where I could put away a huge meal and be hungry again soon after. I was gaining weight. This happened when I was on Paxil. Even though I was on Metformin at the same time, it did nothing to help. Only thing that helped in that situation was going off the Paxil. With insulin resistance, from what I understand, the cells aren't getting the sugar they need - it's locked out and instead circulates through the bloodstream. Your body is needing food, hence the huge appetite, but it can't get to the sugar in what you're eating.

I am going to give it another day or two and then I think I'll try famotidine (Pepcid), as haidut mentioned earlier in this thread, to see if it can help retain and create glycogen.

 

[freyasam]

Is famotidine a prescription drug in the US?

It lowers stomach acid--wouldn't that be a bad thing?

 

[Peata]

Is famotidine a prescription drug in the US?

It lowers stomach acid--wouldn't that be a bad thing?

Decades ago, it was Rx only, but it's OTC in the US for some time now.

Yes, it lowers stomach acid. Not sure how bad that would be.

I took it a long time ago when it was by Rx when I had an ulcer. I was having burning pains in my stomach -at least some of it I feel was due to emotions/stress. The pepcid helped nicely. I remember feeling good on it and wishing I could keep taking it after the prescription ran out. Maybe it was helping more than just my stomach at the time - perhaps lowering histamine helped me too.

Adding - I'll probably try it short term to see if I notice anything improved.

 

[haidut]

Is famotidine a prescription drug in the US?

It lowers stomach acid--wouldn't that be a bad thing?

All anti-histamines lower stomach acid, even Claritin and Benadryl. This is due to the fact that apparently all H1 "receptor" antagonists are also H2 antagonists as well. There are studies on PubMed discussing this issue.
Famotidine is perhaps the safest of the H2 antagonists out there. It does not affect cytochrome P450, it doe snot burden the liver, and it does a number of good things on the stomach. It is also showing promising results in schizophrenia, which I think underscores its many good effects.
If you don't want to take famotidine, you can try uridine for glycogen storage which is over the counter (dietary supplement) in most countries.

 

[Peata]

just adding this to the discussion. it's from RP article on Coconut oil.

The ability of some of the medium chain saturated fatty acids to inhibit the liver's formation of fat very likely synergizes with the pro-thyroid effect, in allowing energy to be used, rather than stored. When fat isn't formed from carbohydrate, the sugar is available for use, or for storage as glycogen. Therefore, shifting from unsaturated fats in foods to coconut oil involves several anti-stress processes, reducing our need for the adrenal hormones. Decreased blood sugar is a basic signal for the release of adrenal hormones. Unsaturated oil tends to lower the blood sugar in at least three basic ways. It damages mitochondria, causing respiration to be uncoupled from energy production, meaning that fuel is burned without useful effect. It suppresses the activity of the respiratory enzyme (directly, and through its anti-thyroid actions), decreasing the respiratory production of energy. And it tends to direct carbohydrate into fat production, making both stress and obesity more probable. For those of us who use coconut oil consistently, one of the most noticeable changes is the ability to go for several hours without eating, and to feel hungry without having symptoms of hypoglycemia.

 

[jyb]

Yeah, it's very common for me to eat a ton before bed, lie down, and the adrenaline drives up hunger and I have to get up to eat again.

The stress response of hunger has just been unbearable for me lately. It's getting worse

I can't get fructose powder , or just about any other supplement, here in Mexico. I'm considering moving back to the US, though that thought is depressing to me. Don't know what else to do. Food and sun alone aren't enough to make me better

I'm guessing you're eating carbs and not much fat. If so, then I was in your shoes before. I think however you are correct to be concerned. Stress response from hunger? That's all those stress hormones spiking regularly and doing all the harm we know. You're not supposed to have ANY spike in stressful hunger if you eat well, even at night. That's my experience.

 

[freyasam]

Yes, I've had this issue for 5 years and recently it's gotten worse. I ate a huge meal at noon today, and less than 30 min later I was ravenously hungry and feeling anxious and stressed. This is totally unsustainable to feel this hungry.

Peata, thanks for the quote on coconut oil. The past couple months I've tried to reduce fat, from reading other people's experiences in going low-fat to heal their liver. I think it's just made me go in the wrong direction.

 

[jyb]

Yes, I've had this issue for 5 years and recently it's gotten worse. I ate a huge meal at noon today, and less than 30 min later I was ravenously hungry and feeling anxious and stressed. This is totally unsustainable to feel this hungry.

Peata, thanks for the quote on coconut oil. The past couple months I've tried to reduce fat, from reading other people's experiences in going low-fat to heal their liver. I think it's just made me go in the wrong direction.

I solved these anxiety problems by eating a lot more fat and being a lot more careful about what carbs I eat. And I think its really important to solve this problem, whatever way you go. Getting anxious and stressed means one is exposed to all the bad hormones described in Ray's articles. Not giving the fuel that the cells need, whether its because the diet is lacking it or wasting it. That's when damage occurs.

 

[Peata]

Well, I've done very well since last Tues. night, not waking up with adrenaline and needing to eat something. I've slept through the night except getting up to go the the bathroom once between 5 - 7 a.m. most nights. Restful sleep. And feeling ready for bed before midnight. That's all a big improvement for me.

I started using the Pepcid 10 mg. 1 x daily since last Thurs. Not sure that I can attribute anything to it, but it certainly doesn't seem to be hurting anything, so I'll probably keep taking it for a while.

Starch. At first I had trouble with not eating it - not feeling as full on fruit as starcj, but someone (maybe Tara?) suggested to me to eat some extra salt with it, and it seems like that helped. Now I don't miss starch or need it for satiety, though I do have it sometimes. I was worried at first that I'd have severe blood sugar issues without starch and would always be hungry without it, to be honest. But in fact, after I adjusted, I was no worse off using just fruit/juice, sugar than including starches. Now i don't worry about blood sugars or satiety due to not having starch.

Still mostly going 2, sometimes 3 hours between meals. Yesterday i actually went over 4 hours out of necessity, but it didn't seem to cause bad symptoms. Maybe because I was going on some stress hormones ? Or just the novelty of what i was doing at the time made me not think about food.

I've been over a week on higher protein (120+ g day instead of 80). I feel like the higher protein has helped me have more energy during the day. I seem to be craving higher protein foods regularly now. I may not keep it at 120+g daily, but I think I will have an easier time with eating enough when I do lower it.

Not sure what's doing what, which is a problem of using different things at once, but when you are desperate to get things going, that's what happens sometimes.

So... last night I had the first glycogen depletion problem in a week. It was around 7:30-8 p.m. when I ate my last meal, higher protein stuff (over 50 g. in one sitting- I was hungry) and the carbs did not quite balance that even 1:1. I was craving my latte after - which would have added enough carb to balance it, but I didn't have one. So I woke up about 2.5 hours after I went to sleep and had some of those familiar adrenaline symptoms. Not too bad, but still. All I had close by was some honey, so I had some - not enough, I know now. I didn't wake up with the adrenaline again, but I did wake up 2 more times just to pee. So hopefully lesson learned about getting enough carb to balance the protein especially before bed.

Sorry this is so long, just wanted to update my progress. I feel progress is being made, especially at night.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Great news Peata...here's some quotes I found from RP. I'm sure we have all read these several times, but sometimes I like reminders to keep me on track....

Stress seems to be perceived as a need for sugar. In the absence of sucrose, satisfying this need with starch and fat is more likely to lead to obesity.

Honey has been used therapeutically for thousands of years, and recently there has been some research documenting a variety of uses, including treatment of ulcers and colitis, and other inflammatory conditions. Obesity increases mediators of inflammation, including the C-reactive protein (CRP) and homocysteine. Honey, which contains free fructose and free glucose, lowers CRP and homocysteine, as well as triglycerides, glucose, and cholesterol, while it increased insulin more than sucrose did (Al-Waili, 2004). Hypoglycemia intensifies inflammatory reactions, and insulin can reduce inflammation if sugar is available. Obesity, like diabetes, seems to involve a cellular energy deficiency, resulting from the inability to metabolize sugar.

 

[RPDiciple]

great to read Peate. Really focus on what you are doing and i think doing some more higher protein stuff is key for a while. I need that as well.Keep it to 120-150g and see how it feels. Also key to keep fat low so it dont interfer with sugar metabolism and glycogen storage.

I asked RP about his starch experience and what the benefiits he got from it when he cut it out or what he noticed once he quit starch. He said going longer between meals without feeling uncomfort or stress. Wich is exactly what you are experiencing, so that is good