18 Year Old With Chronic Fatigue

[proseandpassion]

Amber, is there any way you could go to bed a bit earlier? When I had my fatigue in college, going to bed VERY early is the only thing that seemed to help me. I would usually be asleep by 8pm.

 

[Amber]

Amber, is there any way you could go to bed a bit earlier? When I had my fatigue in college, going to bed VERY early is the only thing that seemed to help me. I would usually be asleep by 8pm.

Hi,

I used to go to bed around 9 but i could never fall asleep early. I can sleep 12+ hours if i wanted to but i cant fall asleep at 9 or 10

 

[hef911]

I have been diagnosed with mono too. I think that the feeling of being a slow thinker and dumb is mainly caused by the brainfogs, which is one of the main effects of mono. dont stress too much about dieting. I did my fair share of reducing my callories too much for a long time which resulted in being anxious and fatigued.

My advice is to up de callories and dont stress too much about the weight and when you feel well again cut down your callories slowly.

 

[Mito]

This means im eating about 350GR Carbs, is 3GR potassium and 300MG Magnesium enough for this or should i raise both of them?

The average basis for good magnesium cellular saturation is between 7 mg – 10 mg per kg of body weight (475-680 mg for 150 lb person) daily. The Requirement of Magnesium by the Normal Adult

But remember intercellular magnesium is what's important. Ray believes you really don't really take up magnesium into the cell efficiently without adequate thyroid function.

 

[HLP]

I've never tracked my potassium. Eat enough fruit and it should be okay.

 

[Amber]

The average basis for good magnesium cellular saturation is between 7 mg – 10 mg per kg of body weight (475-680 mg for 150 lb person) daily. The Requirement of Magnesium by the Normal Adult

But remember intercellular magnesium is what's important. Ray believes you really don't really take up magnesium into the cell efficiently without adequate thyroid function.

Thanks.

I agree with the fact that you need thyroid to take up the magnesium. When i take a little t3 with my magnesium supps they usually dont cause loose stools at 200mg but without the t3 they do, even at 100mg.

 

[Amber]

I've never tracked my potassium. Eat enough fruit and it should be okay.

Thank you, i'll be fine then.

 

[Amber]

Update on the t3

I tried 4mcg last night and this morning i woke up with a slight headache, feeling a little hot and some muscle weakness in my thighs. I read something about magnesium needs increasing when you first start taking thyroid so i will take 4mcg t3 with 100mg magnesium to see if it makes a difference.

 

[A.R]

Sounds like your surgery may have caused low grade cholestasis. This is actually pretty common in surgeries, especially transplants. Something about the combination of slicing someone open and putting them on anesthetics leads to rapid formation of lithogenic bile and eventually bile duct blockages. Birth control and painkillers are not helpful either. I had a situation similar to yours... 20 quite healthy, very active, etc. Then I decided I wanted to be 7% bodyfat and deadlift 5 plates so I started taking "supplements". Then this happened... Androgenic/anabolic steroid-induced intrahepatic cholestasis: a review with four additional case reports. - PubMed - NCBI And yea, all down hill from there. This is an extreme case obviously but I suspect things like vaccines have a similar effect. Pregnancy is also known to cause cholestasis so you can get the idea of how fundamental bile flow is in response to stress.

Anyway, since then I've come to the conclusion that cholestasis ( of various degrees ) and the associated liver/GI dysfunction is the #1 source of chronic disease. Ray peat forum members may not agree but that is mostly because I haven't put myself to the task of convincing them. And trust me there is a very good case for it. It explains everything from why certain people eat/live in a supposedly unhealthy way yet glow like a god to why others can try EVERYTHING with very little progress. And more

It's very interesting what you say about cholestasis.

What particularly played a big role in your recovery may I ask?

 

[A.R]

Hi,

About me, im an 18 year old girl struggling with weird symptoms including chronic fatigue, ...

I would definitely start with Taurine and glycine supplementation. There's plenty of information about these two aminos on the forum, and they have great synergistic effects.

Bone broth/cow feet are good for helping the body recover, as is eating liver once a week or so.

Daily carrot salad should help with digestion and clearing estrogen.

 

[Amber]

A question,

My tongue has been swollen with teeth marks on the sides for a few months now. It started when i used high dose zinc and vitamin c supplements. Magnesium makes it worse, too. I wonder what this is about? Low blood pressure? Deficiency of some kind?

- my mom also supplemented high dose vitamin c her whole life (2-4gr daily) which makes me wonder if i could have a copper deficiency which makes dhea production go down by 50% (read that somewhere on the forum) would explain the fatigue/brain fog.

Edit: something i totally forgot about, my eyes are usually light brown/hazel color but on some days one of them changes color? It changes from normal to green/hazel which is very strange

 

[HLP]

It is very easy to over supplement Zinc. Try to get from food instead.

 

[Mito]

It started when i used high dose zinc and vitamin c supplements.

Taking large quantities of zinc (50 mg/day or more) over a period of weeks can interfere with copper bioavailability. Zinc

 

[tara]

This is severe undereating. To recover from this, you likely need to eat more than 1800 kcal, especially if you still exercise a few times per week. Progesterone won't work if your thyroid status sucks. If your thyroid sucks, taking T3 without being well-nourished will just make your body more stressed. Surgery itself is a massive stressor. You might want to de-stress for a while with lots of food, naps, etc. and then slowly introduce supps in a few months. Cyproheptadine could help you regain your appetite and kill some stress hormones.

+1

I know i was undereating, but i couldn't lose weight eating more than that and i wanted to lose weight really badly because i didn't feel good. Right now im at 20% bodyfat and im pretty lean but as soon as i eat more than 1800~ cals a day i start gaining weight which is something i don't want. I will try to increase my calories step by step and relax a little. I try to relax but most of the time i feel so stressed/anxious/nervous that i can't even get myself to do everything i want to do which adds up to the stressed feeling leaving me feeling more stressed.

I don't know if you can recover without gaining some fat - but recovering from semi-starvation and chronic fatigue seem a lot more important than that to me.

I found the articles on this site useful for another perspective. It's aimed at people recovering from restrictive eating disorders. I'm not saying you have one, but you do seem to have been doing serious under-eating and over-exercising for a long time and this seems likely to be a source of your current health issues. The site talks about energy balance and deficit and consequences and actual energy needs and what's normal - I found these an eye-opener.
I Need How Many Calories?!!
Patients and General Public

Surgery likely required extra resources to recover, so that may have put you in further deficit.

Also, whenever i eat a lot of potassium (about 5000MG a day) i get very bad muscle cramps in my legs and they start swelling and feel tense. Anyone knows what the cause of this is? I was thinking aldosterone going up maybe because of too much potassium.

Do you mean 5g potassium from fruit and veges? Maybe there are other minerals you are needing more of?
Excessive supplemental potassium can be dangerous (hyperkalemia).

Yeah pretty much same for me. There have been times where i ate even less than 1000cals. At the time i didn't realize how bad it was.

Glad you know not to go there again.

If you try to drive your metabolism up with thyroid supplements while you are undereating, you can potentially increase energy and micronutrient deficiencies and cause more stress to your system, and it may try to find ways to defend itself.

I think Peat has suggested that people who use small doses of T3 during the day might do well to add a bit of T4 to last through the night.

 

[Amber]

Hi tara,

About the potassium, yes i mean from food sources. I will suddenly get muscle cramps and feel cold which i think is aldosterone going up.

I have a question, is it possible that i have been overdosing on magnesium which would then have caused my low blood pressure? Thanks.

 

[tara]

I have a question, is it possible that i have been overdosing on magnesium which would then have caused my low blood pressure? Thanks.

I don't know about the blood pressure.

My own experience includes getting muscle cramps. Currently my best quick remedy seems to be topical Mg - I slop little Mg chloride solution on the affected area and it usually resolves within a minute. But if yours a have different causes I don't know.
In the past I've had patches where I've been close to fainting, and I think they have mostly been associated with hunger/undereating.

 

[Amber]

I don't know about the blood pressure.

My own experience includes getting muscle cramps. Currently my best quick remedy seems to be topical Mg - I slop little Mg chloride solution on the affected area and it usually resolves within a minute. But if yours a have different causes I don't know.
In the past I've had patches where I've been close to fainting, and I think they have mostly been associated with hunger/undereating.

Well i used to supplement about 1000mg magnesium daily and a few times/week i would go up to 1500mg + i used magnesium spray everyday! Thats a lot of magnesium and i never ate dairy before peat.

Btw, i had a 'binge' today. No pufa but drank about a gallon of chocolate milk lol + milk chocolate bar + potatoes and stake for dinner + some more candy. Total about 550carbs and around 90gr protein i think. Fat was around 30 grams. Can't sleep right now, it's 4am here.

 

[tara]

Well i used to supplement about 1000mg magnesium daily and a few times/week i would go up to 1500mg + i used magnesium spray everyday! Thats a lot of magnesium and i never ate dairy before peat.

Hopefully adding in some sources of calcium and other minerals and vitamins will help get it all into balance.
Are you salting your food to taste?

No pufa but drank about a gallon of chocolate milk lol + milk chocolate bar + potatoes and stake for dinner + some more candy. Total about 550carbs and around 90gr protein i think. Fat was around 30 grams. Can't sleep right now, it's 4am here.

Now your talking. :) If that's your whole days food intake, it looks like a fairly normal daily amount. Spreading food across the day can help make it easier to handle. I wonder if it's stimulation from the chocolate that's kept you awake?

 

[Amber]

Hopefully adding in some sources of calcium and other minerals and vitamins will help get it all into balance.
Are you salting your food to taste?


Now your talking. :) If that's your whole days food intake, it looks like a fairly normal daily amount. Spreading food across the day can help make it easier to handle. I wonder if it's stimulation from the chocolate that's kept you awake?

Im not sure, i got a cold nose after drinking that much milk which is high in potassium, always happens with high potassium foods.

 

[Amber]

I wonder if the chocolate milk would cause weight gain because it raises insulin a lot . If not, i would easily get everything i need from 2L of chocolate milk with added sugar.