A Wish For More Energy

[Dr. B]

T3 only backfired for me in the past.
And combination therapy (T3 + T4) only made it worse.

Werenr you using 10-20mcg T3 only daily? Or was it natural thyroid?

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Werenr you using 10-20mcg T3 only daily? Or was it natural thyroid?

Most recently, only T3.
In the past, T3 and T4. T4 only made me more hypo.

 

[Kocky777]

T3 only backfired for me in the past.
And combination therapy (T3 + T4) only made it worse.

Thanks alot!
It´s a pity that it didn´t work out for you. :-(

 

[Dr. B]

Most recently, only T3.
In the past, T3 and T4. T4 only made me more hypo.

So T3 only went better than T4 and T3 together, or did that cause issues for you
T3 only wasnt good for me, i never tried just T4 or T3 T4 together. But i heard both together are best

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I’m not sure people under 40 should take thyroid, except those with removed thyroid gland.

Fun fact: I’ve been taking high dose D3 almost daily for a couple of months. Can’t remember last time I had a cold.

 

[Kocky777]

I’m not sure people under 40 should take thyroid, except those with removed thyroid gland.

Fun fact: I’ve been taking high dose D3 almost daily for a couple of months. Can’t remember last time I had a cold.

How many international units of Vitamin D did you take?
I once took 100.000 (one hundred thousand) international units of Vitamin D with copious amounts of K1/K2 and Magnesium and Calcium in order to fight of a stubborn cold. Worked like a charm. I can recommend Jeff T Bowles book (and also his blog) in Vitamin D.

 

[Dr. B]

I’m not sure people under 40 should take thyroid, except those with removed thyroid gland.

Fun fact: I’ve been taking high dose D3 almost daily for a couple of months. Can’t remember last time I had a cold.

What dosage? I used to do 10,000 IU daily for a few years but since a year ago cut it down to 1000IU a daily due to it possibly affecting A, K2 and the b vitamins. I don’t supplement those besides small doses of the Bs. K2 supplements cause hair loss for me. Unless i do like 0.5mg K2 a day

Thankfully grass fed whole milk is supposed to provide decent amounts of A and K2 and even some D3

 

[GreekDemiGod]

What dosage?

5-8k IU

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I bought some Cordyceps in the hope of boosting my energy levels.
I also started taking Tongkat Ali for libido, and Bacopa Monnieri, a friend recommended me, said it had a powerful antidepressant effect on him.
I also got some L-carnitine tartrate (I know it's not peaty) and Maca root in the hope of boosting androgen receptors and restart my libido.

My libido has been very low lately.
Will report back when I see results.

 

[jet9]

An undeniable realization. A high carbs: protein ratio gives a noticeable boost in my thyroid function. It also significantly raises my temps. I'm reaching 37C or more in the winter.
I'm not entirely sure if it's strictly about the ratio, or about keeping protein in check, or both, or reducing methionine & tryptophan, but it's clear that high carb style of eating gives me the best energy levels.

Perceive. Think. Act. That's what I'm doing.

This week, I've been eating about 120g of protein per day and 300-400g of carbs.
I've been reading Peat saying how the more you need to heal, the higher of a carb:protein ratio you need. And how protein uses up more thyroid hormone.
So whatever gut healing protocol or dietary intervention I will do from now on, it must abide to a high carb: protein ratio .
If plenty of carbs with each meal gives me an energy boost, and I feel tired eating higher protein/ fats, I must look into blood sugar dysregulation too as a possible cause.

What do you eat for carbs? And also how your breakfast looks like?

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Reflections on my current state of health and next steps.
I've been following Peat principles for more than 4 years by now. Joined this forum in August 2019. Banned recently, but lasted 4 days only.
I am 33 years old.

Current weight: 82kg (180 lbs). I have a decent amount of muscle, bodyfat around 13%. I am satisfied with my physique, with a few exception: I have some chest fat, not sure it's gyno, and have had it for about 2 years, I don't like it at all.

I currently do 4 workouts per week, following Paul Carter principles of optimal/ "low" volume: 1-2 all out, to failure sets for each exercise. And responding really good to it, recovery is good, I'm seeing progress in strength and numbers.

Overall energy levels have been decent lately. Not great, not that worse. My temps are good.
However, I still have some major health issues unsolved. I will list them below.

SEVERE

ED (Erectile Dysfunction) - - has gone from bad to worse, I now can't perform without meds (Cialis, herbal pills). I can't get a full erection and I lose it fast, if I'm not using pills.
Chronic bloating/ constipation/ SIBO - I talked a lot about this, my poor digestion, my issues with digesting carbs, starch, even milk


MODERATE
Low libido - logically and mentally, my sexual desires are high, my "mental" libido is high, my desire for sex is high, but physically, there is a disconnect
Brain fog
Coated tongue
Anhedonia, tendency for depression.
Achy and stiff body- I feel older than I am, I lack vitality.
Yellow teeth
Chest fat/ gyno.
Inability to concentrate for long periods of time, inability to do deep intellectual work. I get tired quickly, mentally,
Mild NAFLD
Poor cardiovascular endurance
clogged nasal passages (from food intolerances, likely, but someone suggested I get checked for deviated septum)
Palpitations - feels like my heart is working hard to function

MILD
grumpy in the mornings, it takes hours to wake up and be somewhat productive.
mild redness on face


I have tried so many things for ED/ libido, almost none work consistently.
Cordyceps, Cistanche, Tongkat Ali, high-dose D3 and K2, Maca powder, Aspirin, Taurine, caffeine, high-dose Thiamine, Mucuna, saturated fats, liver, pastured eggs, raw honey...

I've been dosing over 10k IU of D3 for the last couple of weeks, even months, without perceived results.

Thoughts/ Possible areas of improvements
I get little natural light in the morning. First thing I do when I wake up is sit on my phone. I'm tired/ lazy to go outside in the morning.
I go to bed at (very) late hours, 12-1-2 AM.
My ED might be caused by: low Testosterone, poor cardiovascular health (why would this be, I have no clue), possible pre-diabetes. And I have no idea what is the root cause.
I had a few scary episodes where I felt pain in my heart, chest tightness. Heart attack? At this age? Not possible.

Overall, I'm stuck in a rut. I don't know where to go from here. I am really worried about my ED
I have been looking with interest into the Low Vitamin A threads. And I am seriously thinking about giving the diet a go for a couple of weeks/ months. I've got nothing to lose.
I have symptoms that might be explained by VA toxicity: yellow teeth, NAFLD, overall bad health are a few.

If VA really is a toxin and I get results from this, I will have an existential crisis. With Peat, I had a whole framework of heath laid out that I could trust, to help myself and others. With Peat, we have a congruent view of health that explains the causes of major diseases, like cancer.
But if the Peat framework is not accurate, we can't trust anything anymore.
What is the root cause of cancer in the Low VA paradigm? So many unanswered questions.

My mother had early stage breast cancer, she had chemo, and an intervention in one of her breasts. I've been trying to convince her to try a couple of Peat, health-promoting substances, because I'm worried about her health and want to prevent the cancer from re-occuring.
I've talked to her about trying Aspirin, D3, K2, Progesterone.

 

[Truth]

@GreekDemiGod Hi, do you still eat liver, eggs, orange/red/purple fruit/vegetables, or very little/none at all?

Meat, dairy products and fish can commonly increase pleasure intensity above a certain quantity, if they are sufficiently digestible and if we have efficient digestion

Eggs, liver, too much milk and/or liquid relative to sun exposure and/or degree of sweating, orange/purple/red fruits, all these foods can commonly slow down digestion to the point where we no longer digest the meat/cheese/milk itself/fish, we no longer feel the positive effects, we may experience reflux, an uncomfortable feeling of food stagnating in our stomach,
bloating for some of these foods spécifically in fall and winter

Have you noticed any difference in terms of pleasure intensity when you expose your torso or whole body to the sun?

No and/or very little movement during the day can reduce pleasure intensity, even walking 30/40 minutes a day can commonly have a considerable influence in terms of pleasure intensity

In my experience, sleeping at midnight has no negative impact on pleasure intensity, and can even increase it if you spend longer days with more sunlight and/or artificial light

 

[GreekDemiGod]

@Truth Liver, not so much.
I still ate a lot of eggs and orange juice until today. About 15 eggs per week, and 3-4 liters of orange juice per week.
I am sedentary outside of my lifting sessions, I walk 2-3k steps/ day on most days.
My pleasure intensity during sex is very much reduced.

 

[Truth]

@Truth Liver, not so much.
I still ate a lot of eggs and orange juice until today. About 15 eggs per week, and 3-4 liters of orange juice per week

Eggs can commonly reduce digestion and reduce the intensity of pleasure we feel if we eat them too often, I suggest you experiment by eating 0 eggs

The majority of oranges and orange juices I've seen and/or tried ( I check several places every month to test) are absolutely not optimal for ingestion, often bad, especially orange juice in bottles/cartons, just drinking 3/4 liters a week can easily contribute to a lot of the things you mentioned, I suggest you experiment by drinking 0 orange juice

I am sedentary outside of my lifting sessions, I walk 2-3k steps/ day on most days.
My pleasure intensity during sex is very much reduced.

It's very common to have very little intensity of pleasure when we experience inefficient digestion

 

[Jonk]

@GreekDemiGod have you ever had your vitamin D levels tested? Also whats your elemental magnesium intake each day?

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I've now stopped supplementing D3 (Thorne). The only benefit I got from it is that I haven't gotten sick ever since taking it regularly.
But I suspect it's causing calcification, and it's the reason my body feels stiff and older.
I've read enough convincing reports on Twitter and Reddit that there can be real downsides with supplemental D3.

@Jonk I had them tested last year, 30 ng/mL. That's when I started taking high-dose liquid D3.

 

[youngsinatra]

I have been on a low-to-almost-zero vitamin A diet for over 2 years now.

I had clinical hypervitaminosis A - and excluding it did help a few symptoms, but just the elimination of it wasn’t sufficient to make progress in regards to gut health, liver function and my other health problems.

I think targeting the sluggish liver is key. That requires work on phase 1, 2 & 3 of liver detoxification — including sulfation, methylation, acetylation, glucoronditation, elimination etc.

Most of those are heavily dependent on B vitamins. Riboflavin, in it‘s active metabolites FMN/FAD, is like the general because it’s very important for the processing, enzymatic activation and elimination of many of the other B vitamins. If someone is low thyroid, they can have problems with activating B2 into FMN/FAD. I think this is where a lot of things go wrong with high vitamin A intake - it makes one hypothyroid - even Ray admitted that and the research is looking very solid in that regard that it can create hypothyroidism.

Without FMN/FAD, you accumulate folate, B12 and B6 in the serum, but with poor cellular utilization. High serum B6 can become a very significant problem and I see this problem on so many blood tests currently, even in people that don’t take and haven’t been taking B6.

We need to be able to utilize B6 for the sulfation pathway. We need to utilize folate and B12 for the methylation cycle. We need to utilize B1 and B5 for acetylation. We need to utilize B3 because NAD+ is another key cofactor for many enzymes, but to make NAD we need FAD forst to actually convert it.

"The idea behind the RnB pathway is that many people are functionally deficient in vitamin B2 - which means that there are around 100 B2-dependent enzymes that are not working properly. Two of the enzymes are MTHFR and MTRR, and if they are working slowly, then you become functionally deficient in vitamin B12, and you cannot fix this without fixing the functional B2 deficiency. Now you are ready for around 200 methylation reactions to take place.

Further, fixing B2 deficiency, then allows 3 of the 4 B1 pathways to work, around 80 of the B3 pathways to work, plus now you also can activate B6, so you have around 100 B6 dependent reactions. On top of that you can now activate vitamin A and vitamin K. So this more or less fixes just about all the pathways.

Sulfation comes indirectly from the methylation pathway, as too the production of glutathione, as well one of the FAD dependent enzymes is glutathione reductase and so you fix the alterred GSH:GSSG ratio.

Thus, you fix the route of the problem in many, many conditions, including ASD, CFS/ME, obesity, diabetes, dementia, nearly all the mitochondrial diseases, pyroluria, etc“

Quote from Dr. Gregory Russel-Jones

 

[youngsinatra]

I think that also explains why many people also fail on the high-dose B1 regimen in the long run. Because after a while they heavily deplete other important B‘s, not just riboflavin, but also B12, folate, B5.. AND potassium etc.

And then taking B1 starts turning on them and even causing opposite effects - like dry mouth when at first it made the saliva flow better. Causing slow motility and constipation, when at first it improved that. And it starts causes a weird body odor, because the sulfation pathway is not working right anymore.

I personally take a low dose of all the B‘s because nutrient synergy really matter. I dont take B3 and B6. I get plenty of that through diet and extra B6 causes neuropathy to me and I think it’s the one that most should be very very careful with, because it’s toxicity is a serious dealbreaker.

 

[Jonk]

I've now stopped supplementing D3 (Thorne). The only benefit I got from it is that I haven't gotten sick ever since taking it regularly.
But I suspect it's causing calcification, and it's the reason my body feels stiff and older.
I've read enough convincing reports on Twitter and Reddit that there can be real downsides with supplemental D3.

@Jonk I had them tested last year, 30 ng/mL. That's when I started taking high-dose liquid D3.

Thanks. For me personally magnesium solves the stiffness issue completely, 1g magnesium carbonate per 10K IU vit D, always togheter. I think with low vit D and/or low calcium the calcium regulation is messed up pretty bad hence needing a lot more magnesium. But long term I think vitamin D as with calcium will have the opposite effect.

 

[Jamsey]

This might sound like a ridiculous suggestion, but when my digestion was really bad(IBS-d) and I was at my wits end, eating two bananas with every meal was nearly a miracle cure for me. It’s uncomfortable in the colon area for at least the first few days/ first week or two, but eventually this stopped the inflammatory reaction cycle to food that I had been experiencing. With my digestion doing better, this also solved any sexual difficulty I had experienced. I think the relentless release of cortisol during digestive distress tends to raise blood pressure(makes erections difficult) / lower testosterone and other androgens(libido difficulty), and without stopping this cycle, it is hard to progress.

Green Banana Flour Contributes to Gut Microbiota Recovery and Improves Colonic Barrier Integrity in Mice Following Antibiotic Perturbation

Green banana flour (GBF) is rich in resistant starch that has been used as a prebiotic to exert beneficial effects on gut microbiota. In this study, GBF was evaluated for its capacity to restore gut microbiota and intestinal barrier integrity from antibiotics ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Synbiotic supplementation with prebiotic green banana resistant starch and probiotic Bacillus coagulans spores ameliorates gut inflammation in mouse model of inflammatory bowel diseases

The research goal is to develop dietary strategies to help address the growing incidence of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This study has investigated the effectiveness of green banana resistant starch (GBRS) and probiotic Bacillus coagulans MTCC5856 ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

(Side note that I didn’t eat completely green bananas. I found yellow bananas to work fine, but over ripe(brown) bananas to not really work for this effect)