Advice For Severe Adrenal Stress And Hypoglycemia

[Giraffe]

The pantotheanine is pantothenic acid- b5. Dr Lam says its cruical to the adrnals as well. Not sure im seeing much benefit from it or not?

I am not knowledgeable about vitamin B5. I have researched it a bit though, and I decided to stay away from it. To experimentally induce deficiency is quite difficult.

Here is a recent discussion: Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) - Acne, Hormones And Safe Dosage

Do you have a recommendation for a good vitamin e? I checked the one ihave and its in a base of sinflower oil- im thinking thats a no-no, correct?

Not sure vitamin E from sunflower oil is necessarily a no-no, but I would buy a different one if I had the choice or ensure that the dosage is high (to offset the PUFA contained in the supplement). Vitamin E has a high viscosity. For some people this is irritating. Make sure you take it with food or use oil topically (e.g. put a few drops on the wrist and lick it off).

Please check Dan Wich's website for recommendations: Vitamin E supplements with the fewest additives - Toxinless

Some experiences here:
TocoVit - Liquid Vitamin E From Wheat Germ Oil
E

Lastly, i used some activated charcoal yesterday and it helped a little with the digestion. Do you think you can overdo it? Say if i put some in water and sipped it daily, would it be too detoxifying to use it that often?

I would ingest it in the afternoon with plenty of fluid, away from food or supplements, probably up to three times a week (more often as long as diarrhea persists).

You may need to play a bit with dosage. If you take too much you will get constipated, if you take too little you will probably benefit from it, but not as much as you could.

Tonight i think i might try skipping the juice at night until my body adjusts more.... or does this mean i need the juice even more...? what are your thoughts?

You can try if it works better if you have some fat and protein with the juice. This will slow down digestion, so you have a more steady supply during the night.

 

[linnae]

Hi Linnae, you're welcome!

Glad you're figuring out a way to improve tolerance of fruit juice, yay!

Oh yes, it is so exciting to feel that your cells are saying "THANK YOU!" (at least that's what they told me ) They so need their glucose. One great pearl of wisdom that I learned from Dr. Peat -and fits my experience and observation from people around- is that cells perform their best and as they are supposed to when they can process glucose correctly and generate clean energy; harm that or take that away from them and you get a low functioning, sick cell. It's so simple!

Regarding cypro, I started taking it only 5-6 months after the garlic blast and focusing on a good, well tolerated diet. I did beautifully as soon as I started it and never had a problem with it, thanks God!. Such needed relief. However, I don't know if it would have been the same had I started cypro from the very beginning. Maybe I'd suggest keep on reading/researching and come to your own conclusion. I believe it is good to be ingesting enough food and carbs if one is using that med, since it lowers stress hormones. But maybe it can help tolerate the carbs better to begin with? Things to ponder!

And no worries about formatting; indeed it is great you're avoiding sources of overstimulation -extremely important if you ask me, may be even more important than supplements. And please excuse me back for my typos, etc..., English is not my first language and sometimes I type too fast :)

By the way, kudos to you for helping your son with autism! It was great that he improved so much!

Please be safe and take care, Linnae. :)

@PakPik thanks again! I think its probably a good idea to wait a bit on the cypro. Moslty because i feel thats it already hard enough to feel satiated and then also because I have had paradoxical reactions to a lot of meds/ supplements lately. I think i will try and rebuild my cellular health a little more first. I appreciate the feedback, it did help me to come to that conclusion.

Also, its exciting to note that everyday my sugar tolerance goes up just a little bit and Im starting to feel alive again!!!

Wishing you all the best!

 

[linnae]

I am not knowledgeable about vitamin B5. I have researched it a bit though, and I decided to stay away from it. To experimentally induce deficiency is quite difficult.

Here is a recent discussion: Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) - Acne, Hormones And Safe Dosage


Not sure vitamin E from sunflower oil is necessarily a no-no, but I would buy a different one if I had the choice or ensure that the dosage is high (to offset the PUFA contained in the supplement). Vitamin E has a high viscosity. For some people this is irritating. Make sure you take it with food or use oil topically (e.g. put a few drops on the wrist and lick it off).

Please check Dan Wich's website for recommendations: Vitamin E supplements with the fewest additives - Toxinless

Some experiences here:
TocoVit - Liquid Vitamin E From Wheat Germ Oil
E


I would ingest it in the afternoon with plenty of fluid, away from food or supplements, probably up to three times a week (more often as long as diarrhea persists).

You may need to play a bit with dosage. If you take too much you will get constipated, if you take too little you will probably benefit from it, but not as much as you could.


You can try if it works better if you have some fat and protein with the juice. This will slow down digestion, so you have a more steady supply during the night.

@Giraffe thanks again! This is super helpful info!!!
I really appreciate the link on the pantothenic acid. Dr Lam says its so important to adrnal helath but after reading this info Im not so sure i want to continue taking it.
I plan to purchase another E supplement, at this point im 100% committed to making positive changes and would rather not have anything holding me back. I am very hypersensitive so theres a good chance the sunflower oil would have a negative reaction or possibility just negate what im trying to achieve with the E oil in the first place. Thanks for the alternative recommendations. Also, currently i have to take all my supplements topically due to my digestive issues so it shouldnt be too irritating.
I plan to start doing charcoal 2x per week to start, starting tomorrow. Thansk for the heads up about digestion changes with it.
Lastly, im excited to say that my tolerance for sugar is slowly increasing everyday and im starting to feel better, there are definitely changes happening already!

Thank you for all your guidance and recommendations- its been so incredibly helpful!

 

[Giraffe]

Lastly, im excited to say that my tolerance for sugar is slowly increasing everyday and im starting to feel better, there are definitely changes happening already!

This is great news! Thanks for the update, linnae.

 

[PakPik]

@PakPik thanks again! I think its probably a good idea to wait a bit on the cypro. Moslty because i feel thats it already hard enough to feel satiated and then also because I have had paradoxical reactions to a lot of meds/ supplements lately. I think i will try and rebuild my cellular health a little more first. I appreciate the feedback, it did help me to come to that conclusion.

Also, its exciting to note that everyday my sugar tolerance goes up just a little bit and Im starting to feel alive again!!!

Wishing you all the best!

Hey Linnae,

Glad to hear from you! Yeah, sometimes reactions to supplements can get crazy; so much wisdom is needed to sort it all out. If you ever decide to try cyproheptadine I hope that it agrees with you -it's been sooooo helpful to so many people, including relatives/acquaintances of mine who had been dealing with chronic issues.-

I'm happy that your handling of sugar is improving, you sound really excited :) (believe me, it never ceases to amaze me how a person like me could go from chronically not processing any sugar to handling different forms and amounts of it perfectly fine!).

 

[rmgwm]

Lianne, I would be curious to hear what your exact typical diet for a week was at the time when you first started this thread. If you want to share, please include everything from what you were rinking to what you were eating leaving nothing out. This can help decode your original situation more

 

[linnae]

Hey Linnae,

Glad to hear from you! Yeah, sometimes reactions to supplements can get crazy; so much wisdom is needed to sort it all out. If you ever decide to try cyproheptadine I hope that it agrees with you -it's been sooooo helpful to so many people, including relatives/acquaintances of mine who had been dealing with chronic issues.-

I'm happy that your handling of sugar is improving, you sound really excited :) (believe me, it never ceases to amaze me how a person like me could go from chronically not processing any sugar to handling different forms and amounts of it perfectly fine!).

@PakPik
You give me hope that I WILL be able to be well again and that sugar, delicious tasty sugar, will once again be a part of my life! I've been so deprived of it for almost a decade. Thank you for the gift of hope.

 

[linnae]

Lianne, I would be curious to hear what your exact typical diet for a week was at the time when you first started this thread. If you want to share, please include everything from what you were rinking to what you were eating leaving nothing out. This can help decode your original situation more

@rmgwm
Well, it may help to see the progression of decline too so here goes:
For the past 10 years i have been low carb and slowly eliminating foods from my diet based on negative reactions. It started with removing wheat, then dairy, then eggs, and nuts, and as my diet became more limited my health declined even more. When i say low carb i meant that I had some fruit, starches, and honey only occasionally. The bulk of my carbs came from vegetables as recommended by my dr and nutritionist.
Prior to February of this year my typical daily menu was:
Breakfast- sausage, 1 1/2 cups cooked veggies with ghee or coconut oil and maybe a few blueberries
Lunch- lunch meat roll ups with lettuce and seaweed, avocado and loads of other veggies, maybe a slice of an apple
Dinner- oven fried chicken with 1-2 cups sauteed or steamed veggies with ghee or coconut oil
Snacks- seseame seed butter with honey and carrot sticks, sausage patties and veggies, cococnut cream with blueberries, bites of leftovers, bone broth and soups.
I made sure to eat every 3 hours and i was also eating a lot of fermented foods- mostly sauerkraut.
This was my diet for years. In the fall of last year I began having histamine reactions to food so by February of this year i had eliminated all high histamine foods and started eating low fodmaps and the histamine reactions were pretty much gone but my diet was so very limited then and thats when i had the crash. Within a matter of days i went from full functioning to bed ridden with no idea what happened. I was having pains in my back near my kidneys, terrible diarrhea (which was never my constitution- i had it maybe once per year,if that, prior), and also i couldnt regulate my blood sugar and began having to eat every 1-2 hours even thru the night. After a few weeks of this not letting up and going to several drs (who all said i was the picture of health according to lab work!) i found dr lam online and the adrenal stress he talked about made sense so i started working with them. (I also saw a bio identical hormone dr who prescribed dhea and progesterone.)
After that my diet was very well cooked veggies and meat and fat. But after a few months I couldn't even tolerate the cooked veggies- it gave me terrible indigestion and migraines. So I the eliminated veggies.
Now all i eat is meat soup consisting of boiled meat (about 3 lbs per day to get enough calories)and a vegetable broth made with loads of vegs(but dont eat the veggies.) The types of meat i eat are beef, turkey, chicken, lamb, buffalo, elk, camel, venison, and rabbit. All organic and some locally raised. I am on a 4 day rotation and i eat 2 types of meat per day. The fats i eat are coconut oil, duck fat, tallow, and sometimes ghee. And for the veg broth its usually carrots, celery, cabbage or brussel sprouts, sometimes kale, sometimes a sweet potato, leeks, lots if fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, organo, dill, etc. plus i add fresh tumeric, ginger and garlic.

within the past 10 days i have added apple juice (sometimes with cucumber added) and gelatin and it is helping. I have had a few more regular stools (not all) and a few nights i have been able to sleep a little longer in between eating.

So, as you can see my diet is very limited and i have a hard time adding things back in. But Im hoping (praying) that im finally on the right track to rebuilding my health because at the current rate im on a slow path to death and it scares the hell out of me!

I welcome any suggestions.

 

[rmgwm]

You may want to consider dropping anything that has iodine in it, probably the phytoplanktin. Iodine is good in small doses but in your condition it is probably making things far worse, for the sake of brevity I'll spare you the long explanation but I would drop it.

Sugar from fruits is good, for healthy people. If you add in sugar and feel worse then I would drop it.

Have you ever been tested for sibo or candida? Have you checked the back of your tongue for a white coating (use a mirror and look very far at the back of your tongue with a bright light)? People with Candida will not always have this so if you do not, then don't dismiss candida, but if you do have it then you can be sure that you have it.

 

[linnae]

You may want to consider dropping anything that has iodine in it, probably the phytoplanktin. Iodine is good in small doses but in your condition it is probably making things far worse, for the sake of brevity I'll spare you the long explanation but I would drop it.

Sugar from fruits is good, for healthy people. If you add in sugar and feel worse then I would drop it.

Have you ever been tested for sibo or candida? Have you checked the back of your tongue for a white coating (use a mirror and look very far at the back of your tongue with a bright light)? People with Candida will not always have this so if you do not, then don't dismiss candida, but if you do have it then you can be sure that you have it.

@rmgwm interesting about the iodine. I have heard that its good for you, especially with thyroid issues so i was even adding seaweed to my vegetable broths! Can you give me a few reasons why or maybe some links so i can wrap my head around it? Im finding the Peat diet contradicts so many other things i have been taught so this doesnt surprise me!

I actually feel good from sugar from fruits but only in small amounts and only from juices right now. I feel way worse without it. Its a delicate balance.

I have actually tested positive for candida amd I suspect I probably have sibo too but i go back and forth on that one. I dont want to be tested for it right now so its hard to say for sure. I have some sibo symptoms but those could cross over to candida too. But, I dont have the typical pains or bloating that is very common with sibo.
I have tried doing aquaflora homeopathy for candida several times in the past few months and the detox is too much for my system right now and i end up crashing from it. Im not sure how to handle the candida, i may have to wait until my body is stronger.... although i may not be able to get much stronger without getting it under control.

Sigh. Its such a delimma and so hard to know what to treat first.

 

[rmgwm]

It's definitely not a coincidence that I questioned if you have candida without prior knowledge that you have already been tested positive for it and turned out to be correct. Your symptoms and reactions to food definitely point to candida and I am sure your quality of life is greatly diminished because of this. I am sorry for what you're going through but there is hope.

Very quickly on Iodine: Iodine is very good for us in the right amounts and in a perfectly healthy person but could be deeply exasperating your symptoms. When you ingest iodine it pushes other less favorable substances out of the tissues and receptors, things like bromine, flourine, and chlorine which can cause huge issues when they all start coming out. It can also cause issues rather than help (in certain cases) the thyroid like raising your TSH levels. Iodine is even known for helping to kill Candida but there are far better things to use that have fewer systemic side effects, I would strongly consider dropping it immediately. Once you're healthy again you could add it back in and would need to take "companion nutrients" along with it, but I wouldn't even worry about that right now, your number one enemy is the candida and it is my opinion that you will find little progress without addressing this first. All of Ray Peat's wonderful logic and knowledge is based on healthy humans and not all of it will apply to someone with acute conditions like Candida.

Steps to research to get rid of Candida in order:
1. Removing the biofilm that protects Candida from being killed (you will never get rid of it if you do not remove this first)
2. Take antifungals once the biofilms are removed to lower the amount of candida in your gut
3. Take high quality probiotics to help sustain a healthy gut

Once you no longer test positive for Candida overgrowth you will start responding better to things like Iodine and Peat's suggestions. I would actually imagine you will feel so much relief that you will not even bother tinkering with supplements.

 

[EIRE24]

It's definitely not a coincidence that I questioned if you have candida without prior knowledge that you have already been tested positive for it and turned out to be correct. Your symptoms and reactions to food definitely point to candida and I am sure your quality of life is greatly diminished because of this. I am sorry for what you're going through but there is hope.

Very quickly on Iodine: Iodine is very good for us in the right amounts and in a perfectly healthy person but could be deeply exasperating your symptoms. When you ingest iodine it pushes other less favorable substances out of the tissues and receptors, things like bromine, flourine, and chlorine which can cause huge issues when they all start coming out. It can also cause issues rather than help (in certain cases) the thyroid like raising your TSH levels. Iodine is even known for helping to kill Candida but there are far better things to use that have fewer systemic side effects, I would strongly consider dropping it immediately. Once you're healthy again you could add it back in and would need to take "companion nutrients" along with it, but I wouldn't even worry about that right now, your number one enemy is the candida and it is my opinion that you will find little progress without addressing this first. All of Ray Peat's wonderful logic and knowledge is based on healthy humans and not all of it will apply to someone with acute conditions like Candida.

Steps to research to get rid of Candida in order:
1. Removing the biofilm that protects Candida from being killed (you will never get rid of it if you do not remove this first)
2. Take antifungals once the biofilms are removed to lower the amount of candida in your gut
3. Take high quality probiotics to help sustain a healthy gut

Once you no longer test positive for Candida overgrowth you will start responding better to things like Iodine and Peat's suggestions. I would actually imagine you will feel so much relief that you will not even bother tinkering with supplements.

I'm curious about the regimen you posted here to get rid of candida. Do you think it could help to do this protocol to help the gut if you think it's compromised with bad bacteria? I have acne and am convinced it's due to this....

 

[rmgwm]

Acne can be caused by a number of things, bad bacterial overgrowth is on that list; it's possible it could help or even eliminate your acne but it may be worth your while to get a Genova stool test done so you can find out for sure because people are far more likely to stick with a protocol and succeed when they have some sort of lab result showing the culprit. It can take months of the right type of diet and herbals to completely resolve these matters but if you do have overgrowth, and resolve it, you will most likely see more improvements than just your acne so it is worth the time and effort.

 

[linnae]

It's definitely not a coincidence that I questioned if you have candida without prior knowledge that you have already been tested positive for it and turned out to be correct. Your symptoms and reactions to food definitely point to candida and I am sure your quality of life is greatly diminished because of this. I am sorry for what you're going through but there is hope.

Very quickly on Iodine: Iodine is very good for us in the right amounts and in a perfectly healthy person but could be deeply exasperating your symptoms. When you ingest iodine it pushes other less favorable substances out of the tissues and receptors, things like bromine, flourine, and chlorine which can cause huge issues when they all start coming out. It can also cause issues rather than help (in certain cases) the thyroid like raising your TSH levels. Iodine is even known for helping to kill Candida but there are far better things to use that have fewer systemic side effects, I would strongly consider dropping it immediately. Once you're healthy again you could add it back in and would need to take "companion nutrients" along with it, but I wouldn't even worry about that right now, your number one enemy is the candida and it is my opinion that you will find little progress without addressing this first. All of Ray Peat's wonderful logic and knowledge is based on healthy humans and not all of it will apply to someone with acute conditions like Candida.

Steps to research to get rid of Candida in order:
1. Removing the biofilm that protects Candida from being killed (you will never get rid of it if you do not remove this first)
2. Take antifungals once the biofilms are removed to lower the amount of candida in your gut
3. Take high quality probiotics to help sustain a healthy gut

Once you no longer test positive for Candida overgrowth you will start responding better to things like Iodine and Peat's suggestions. I would actually imagine you will feel so much relief that you will not even bother tinkering with supplements.

I have know candida was an issue for years, which is the main reason why i did the low carb diet for so long. Recently i have suspected i owuld need to address the candida but i have been so weak that i wasnt sure if i could handle the detox. Do you have any suggestions? Im thinking i may not be able to get stronger at this point?!

 

[rmgwm]

If it were me I would start with getting rid of the biofilms, (take known biofilm busters like caprylic acid and enzymes) every day with low doses and go slow all while doing the Candida diet (google search). If I had a reaction I couldn't handle then I would do small doses every other day, if that's too much then every 3rd day etc. Once I take these for awhile then I would start with antifungals like baking soda, nystatin, golden seal, garlic, ginger, pau'darco, black walnut, taking one every five days then rotating to the next. There is a person named DVJORGE (google search) who has mainstreamed the use of Nystatin retention enemas along with S Boulardii retention enemas and has had success with relieving Candida in some people in just a month (after breaking biofilms). You will need to be bold and determined to get rid of this and get your life back, it's not easy but many people have done it, so can you

 

[tara]

I have little knowledge or experience with candida recovery, though I used to get something like thrush regularly and now I don't. I eat a lot more sugar (incl fruit and juice and refined) now than I did then.

I can imagine there might occasionally be benefit in specific tactics for breaking up biofilms and attacking the fungi directly with antifungals.
I think Peat has not advised avoiding sugars from fruit and juice - it I were you I'd keep trying to increase this, esp as you seem to already be experiencing improved energy from it.

 

[linnae]

If it were me I would start with getting rid of the biofilms, (take known biofilm busters like caprylic acid and enzymes) every day with low doses and go slow all while doing the Candida diet (google search). If I had a reaction I couldn't handle then I would do small doses every other day, if that's too much then every 3rd day etc. Once I take these for awhile then I would start with antifungals like baking soda, nystatin, golden seal, garlic, ginger, pau'darco, black walnut, taking one every five days then rotating to the next. There is a person named DVJORGE (google search) who has mainstreamed the use of Nystatin retention enemas along with S Boulardii retention enemas and has had success with relieving Candida in some people in just a month (after breaking biofilms). You will need to be bold and determined to get rid of this and get your life back, it's not easy but many people have done it, so can you

Thank you!!! This is great advice. I am bold and determined, im not ready to give in yet!
Its good to hear some options to take it slow, so many of the candida cleanses are so harsh and i knew i just wouldnt be able to handle that right now. I will look into all of this. Thank you so much for steering me in the right direction. I have put the candida on the back burner but clearly it needs to be in the front.

 

[linnae]

I have little knowledge or experience with candida recovery, though I used to get something like thrush regularly and now I don't. I eat a lot more sugar (incl fruit and juice and refined) now than I did then.

I can imagine there might occasionally be benefit in specific tactics for breaking up biofilms and attacking the fungi directly with antifungals.
I think Peat has not advised avoiding sugars from fruit and juice - it I were you I'd keep trying to increase this, esp as you seem to already be experiencing improved energy from it.

Thank you! I agree about juice. My diet is already so limited and I have been feeling such benefit to having it so i really dont want to take it out yet. but i also have to be very careful of the amount as well its such a delicate balance.
I think i recall reading either in one of Peats articles or maybe a thread on the forum about candida and that limiting sugar is actually bad and creates more overgrowth! That's probably what i did all those years eating uber low carb and sugar free![/QUOTE]

 

[DaveFoster]

If you have had diarrhea for six months, then you have a clinical diagnosis of IBS. Look into cyproheptadine; it and coffee helped normalize a lot of my issues.

 

[linnae]

If you have had diarrhea for six months, then you have a clinical diagnosis of IBS. Look into cyproheptadine; it and coffee helped normalize a lot of my issues.

Thanks! I am planning to try the cypro but maybe in a few months after i regain some strength and my blood sugar is a little more stable. Im worried because of the increase in appetite side effect, i already have a hard time feeling satiated. But its on my radar for sure. Im not so sura about coffee though, i cant handle any caffeine right now!