Awakening: A Journey Out Of The Dark Hell Of Industrial Society, Apathy, And Disease

DB_2014

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
92
Where to start...

- 24 male, Texas
- 6 ft 8, 220 lbs
- Former college football player
- Forced to drop out of college due to severe insomnia, fatigue, and brain fog.
- Diagnosed in 2016 with hypothyroidism. Diagnosed in 2019 with Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome and mild sleep apnea. Diagnosed in 2019 with hyperadrenergic POTS via table test and norepinephrine blood draw. Diagnosed in 2020 with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.

CURRENT SYMPTOMS:
- Severe insomnia
- Severe brain fog
- Severe apathy
- Severe mood swings. Tendency towards anger, isolation, anxiety, and panic.
- Severe constipation
- Moderate joint pain
- Moderate gastritis and stomach pain
- Moderate frequent urination.
- Moderate anxiety
- Moderate racing thoughts
- Moderate frequent nightmares
- Moderate dizziness and fatigue
- Loose teeth
- Enlarged liver confirmed by ultrasound/CT scan (20 cm, normal liver 14 cm or less)


TIMELINE:

2014:
- Graduated high school.
- Went off to college to play football.
- Tore labrum in right hip.
- Went back home for surgery.
- Developed brain fog and fatigue post-surgery.

2015:
- Returned to college in spring 2015 to play football.
- Tore labrums in both shoulders.
- Forced to quit football.
- Moved back home

2016:
- Started an entry level machinist job with the plan to save for 2016 and return to college in 2017 to finish degree.
- Brain fog, fatigue, and joint pain became even more severe.
- Had my first doctors appointment in July 2016. Diagnosed with severe hypothyroidism (TSH of 9)
- Started naturethroid. Felt better initially, but then got worse.

2017:
- Developed an interest in health while attempting to heal. Began perusing online forums like Tnation, bulletproof.
- Became part of the Nofap movement. This was my first experience in controlling my own biology. I was hooked.
- Became very interested in biohacking supplements/drugs. Self-experimented with a plethora of substances and nootropics.
- Returned to college in September 2017. Also started keto around the same time.
- Developed horrible insomnia in response to keto. Began eating carbs again, but the insomnia remained.
- Experimented with T3 in fall 2017. Initial improvement in all symptoms, but then worse again.
- Spiraled into severe depression. Began drinking alchohol regularly and eating out for every meal. Large amounts of PUFA and high-endotoxin food.

2018:
- Averaging 4 hours per week of sleep. Doctor had me on 50-100 mg Seroquel for insomnia which crushed my capacity to feel any positive emotions.
- My interest in biohacking and mind-altering substances led me to try LSD four times over the course of December 2017 to March 2018.
- First LSD experience in December 2017 blew my world apart in a good way. Despite my illness, I became infinitely more inquisitive about life and it's origins as well as the world around me and my own biology and how everything is connected.
- Experiemented with LSD 3 more times. Once in February 2018, twice in March 2018.
- Final trip in March 2018 sent me over the edge. Full blown psychosis. Called 911. Cops confiscated LSD, taken to hospital.
- Parents came up to school and drove me back home.
- Paid $5000 to a lawyer who got me out of a felony charge for LSD possession (thank God or whatever higher powers that be)
- Started my old machinist job back.
- Became a follower of the carnivore diet.

2019:
- Became a heavy follower of Dr. Jack Kruse. Began experimenting with Kruse's high seafood Epi-paleo Leptin RX as well as the Cold Thermogenesis Protocol (frequent ice baths at 55 degrees).
- By spring 2019, I developed severe chemical sensitivity, panic attacks, and mold allergies.
- In spring 2019, I took a security job in Odessa, TX in the desert. This job allowed me to sit in the sun and relax for hours a day. While moving to the desert didn't make me feel much better, it was instrumental in stopping my decline.
- The company I was working for closed down in August 2019, so I left Odessa and moved back home.
- Throughout 2019 fall/winter and early winter 2020, dealt with horrible histamine issues. Read Dr. Lawrence Afrin's book on Mast Cell Activation, found an allergist, and began treatment.


2020: Present Day
- Currently working a job at Costco. It was the only job I could find during this virus hysteria.
- Sleep is still ***t.
- Diet is mostly eggs, small amounts of beef, white potatoes, coke, apples, sugar, sardines, and liver.


CURRENT MEDICATIONS:
- 25-50 mg Seroquel for sleep
- 1 mg diazepam (almost completely weaned off. Doctor put me on in last summer for panic attacks at 5 mg daily).
- Cromolyn Sodium (Mast cell stabilizer)
- Famotidine (H2 blocker)
- Allegra (H1 blocker)


SUPPLEMENTS:

I've spent probably over $15,000 in the last 3 years and tried over 100 supplements. Most didn't help at all. Some (like b-vitamins or copper) helped initially, but then quit helping. Overall, I've become weary of most supplements. At the moment, I occasionally will take some digestive enzymes or ox bile. I also use baking soda orally for constipation (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). I'd like to start using methylene blue, but considering I'm on seroquel (an SSRI), I'm holding off for now to avoid any risk of serotonin toxicity.


My LSD trips from 2017 instilled within me a hyper-fascination about life, biology, physics, spirituality, and history. I've spent the last 3 years researching every aspect of health and nutrition trying to cure myself. Both Dr. Jack Kruse and Dr. Ray Peat took me beyond the old, broken "diet and supplement" paradigm of health to realms I never could have imagined before. While I haven't touched psychedelics since 2017, the last 3 years have been their own psychedelic trip in some sense with all the incredible knowledge people like Jack Kruse, Ray Peat, and many others have laid out for me.

My journey has taken me beyond health into questioning the very society I was raised in. I've become quite disillusioned with Big Pharma, Hollywood, and industrial society as a whole. In addition to creating some level of health, my hope is to live as simply as possible. To regain my creativity. To escape the black whole the crony-capitalist society I was raised in. To eventually escape the big city and lead a simpler life in a country like Mexico, Thailand, or South America and to spend my days living a low-stress, pro-thyroid lifestyle.

Due to poor thyroid, low creativity, and high apathy, my thoughts are quite jumbled and chaotic. I intend to use this log to record my daily progress and thoughts as I build my life back up.
 
Last edited:
OP
D

DB_2014

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
92
This is my second day of calorie tracking (goal of 4000-5000 calories/day). One thing I've screwed up royally over the last several years is calorie intake. I'm a big guy. 6 ft 8, 220 lbs. During high school and early college, I was weight training 6 days/week for football along with sprints and football practice. Looking back, 4 years of football was to much stress for my body, and I think it precipitated my entire health crash. I was chronically overtraining, and chronically under eating. Energy out was > energy in. A simple recipe for disaster. My diet consisted of pop-tarts, cheap protein shakes, peanut butter, and fast food.

Looking back, it's no wonder I've developed the chronic health issues I have. My body has been at a severe energy deficit for years. It wasn't until recently when I began taking a closer look at my calorie consumption that I realized I've only been averaging 1500-2500 calories a day for the last 4 years. While I wouldn't classify myself as having body-image issues or being anorexic, I would definitely say I've never had much of an appetite for whatever reason.

As of today, I've already eaten 4000 calories. My body temp (normally 98 degrees on a good day) has maintained a steady 98.6 for the entire day. This is amazing.

I'm really hitting the easy to digest foods hard. Coke, potatoes, eggs, small amounts of meat, and apples. I can't handle many fruits due to histamine issues. Hopefully that will improve as I lower my chronic stress response by maintaining higher caloric intake.

I've been gluten free for 3 years. And dairy free for a month.

Really excited to see how this high-calorie diet pays off. My appetite is pretty decent right now. Eliminating hard to digest foods like wheat and high fiber have made my appetite much better.
 

ruprmurdoch

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
97
Please just do lab tests, you can be on your drugs:
Acth,cortisol, prolactine, lh,fsh,testosterone,estradiol, ft3,ft4,tsh
You have probably to high acth and cortisol, thus you cant sleep. But first step is to do lab tests
 

meatbag

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
1,771
wow, good luck with everything!

I've found frozen oj concentrate to be a cheap way to get a lot of carbohydrate and nutrition that is easy to digest

Have you ever tried the baking soda bath? I think it helps a lot with relaxation and sleep; you're body basically absorbs all the co2 out of the water

Also I know a lot of people have said that aspirin and vitamin a have helped them with sleep

I also will say that for pharma drugs I don't think anything is more effective that I've tried than mirtazapine. It is also one of the safest script drugs, I found that the doses are too high and that I could get all the sleep benefits from 7.5mg without as much of the side effects
 
OP
D

DB_2014

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
92
wow, good luck with everything!

I've found frozen oj concentrate to be a cheap way to get a lot of carbohydrate and nutrition that is easy to digest

Have you ever tried the baking soda bath? I think it helps a lot with relaxation and sleep; you're body basically absorbs all the co2 out of the water

Also I know a lot of people have said that aspirin and vitamin a have helped them with sleep

I also will say that for pharma drugs I don't think anything is more effective that I've tried than mirtazapine. It is also one of the safest script drugs, I found that the doses are too high and that I could get all the sleep benefits from 7.5mg without as much of the side effects

Thank you!

Haven't tried frozen OJ concentrate yet mainly because my histamine issues cause me to react badly to oranges. I'm hoping reducing my stress response/norepipnehrpine further will allow me to incorporate OJ in the near future.

I haven't tried the baking soda bath, I'm going to give that a go tonight now that you mentioned it!

I have tried mirtazipine. Unfortunately it didn't do anything for me.

Is vitamin A even available in isolated form? I incorporate liver pretty regularly into my diet as well as egg yolks. Would that be enough vitamin A?
 

meatbag

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
1,771
O okay, thought I would mention it's one of the strongest histamine antagonist.
Yeah if you eat liver every week that should be enough from what I've read but it seems some people benefit from more. Some people find the zinc from oysters help a lot too. I suspect people from athletic backgrounds need more zinc but I haven't researched it much...

Some of these clips from interviews are kinda helpful too I think;

Ray Peat Clips

You might like this site too, he's done a great job condensing a lot of research;
10 Tips for Better Sleep – Functional Performance Systems (FPS)
 
OP
D

DB_2014

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
92
Please just do lab tests, you can be on your drugs:
Acth,cortisol, prolactine, lh,fsh,testosterone,estradiol, ft3,ft4,tsh
You have probably to high acth and cortisol, thus you cant sleep. But first step is to do lab tests

I have 4 years of lab tests. Everything you can imagine. Blood, stool, hair, and urine. Heavy metals, mold, mineral analysis, hormone panels...you name it. I've had it done probably.

My cortisol is low weirdly enough.
LH and FSH have always been mid-high range. Total testosterone is always high, but with very high SHBG. Estradiol has always been on the mid to low end of the range. T3 remains at the low end of the range for me, but it is unresponsive to T3 supplementation. T4 has been normal. TSH as of late has hovered around 2.0, so mostly normal.
 
OP
D

DB_2014

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
92
ok, so high Shbg
did you try vit b's +? yeasts (they have vit b's)? especially vit b1, b6

Haven’t tried yeast yet. I have experimented extensively with vitamin B1, B6, B9, and B12. B1 made my histamine issues worse. B6 initially gave me tremendous improvements in temp, mood, and many other areas, but after 4 days it stopped working. I’m focusing on using liver and oysters at this point to get the bulk of my vitamins and minerals. Supplements just haven’t been that effective for me.

I really do think insufficient calories has been a huge stressor for me for quite a long time. I’ve been a habitual nicotine/caffeine user for many years. Since quitting both a few weeks ago, my appetite has come roaring back in the last few days allowing me to up my calorie intake. Topped out yesterday at 5500 calories. My body temp was at 98.6 when I went to bed. Very encouraging.
 
T

TheBeard

Guest
Where to start...

- 24 male, Texas
- 6 ft 8, 220 lbs
- Former college football player
- Forced to drop out of college due to severe insomnia, fatigue, and brain fog.
- Diagnosed in 2016 with hypothyroidism. Diagnosed in 2019 with Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome and mild sleep apnea. Diagnosed in 2019 with hyperadrenergic POTS via table test and norepinephrine blood draw. Diagnosed in 2020 with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.

CURRENT SYMPTOMS:
- Severe insomnia
- Severe brain fog
- Severe apathy
- Severe mood swings. Tendency towards anger, isolation, anxiety, and panic.
- Severe constipation
- Moderate joint pain
- Moderate gastritis and stomach pain
- Moderate frequent urination.
- Moderate anxiety
- Moderate racing thoughts
- Moderate frequent nightmares
- Moderate dizziness and fatigue
- Loose teeth
- Enlarged liver confirmed by ultrasound/CT scan (20 cm, normal liver 14 cm or less)


TIMELINE:

2014:
- Graduated high school.
- Went off to college to play football.
- Tore labrum in right hip.
- Went back home for surgery.
- Developed brain fog and fatigue post-surgery.

2015:
- Returned to college in spring 2015 to play football.
- Tore labrums in both shoulders.
- Forced to quit football.
- Moved back home

2016:
- Started an entry level machinist job with the plan to save for 2016 and return to college in 2017 to finish degree.
- Brain fog, fatigue, and joint pain became even more severe.
- Had my first doctors appointment in July 2016. Diagnosed with severe hypothyroidism (TSH of 9)
- Started naturethroid. Felt better initially, but then got worse.

2017:
- Developed an interest in health while attempting to heal. Began perusing online forums like Tnation, bulletproof.
- Became part of the Nofap movement. This was my first experience in controlling my own biology. I was hooked.
- Became very interested in biohacking supplements/drugs. Self-experimented with a plethora of substances and nootropics.
- Returned to college in September 2017. Also started keto around the same time.
- Developed horrible insomnia in response to keto. Began eating carbs again, but the insomnia remained.
- Experimented with T3 in fall 2017. Initial improvement in all symptoms, but then worse again.
- Spiraled into severe depression. Began drinking alchohol regularly and eating out for every meal. Large amounts of PUFA and high-endotoxin food.

2018:
- Averaging 4 hours per week of sleep. Doctor had me on 50-100 mg Seroquel for insomnia which crushed my capacity to feel any positive emotions.
- My interest in biohacking and mind-altering substances led me to try LSD four times over the course of December 2017 to March 2018.
- First LSD experience in December 2017 blew my world apart in a good way. Despite my illness, I became infinitely more inquisitive about life and it's origins as well as the world around me and my own biology and how everything is connected.
- Experiemented with LSD 3 more times. Once in February 2018, twice in March 2018.
- Final trip in March 2018 sent me over the edge. Full blown psychosis. Called 911. Cops confiscated LSD, taken to hospital.
- Parents came up to school and drove me back home.
- Paid $5000 to a lawyer who got me out of a felony charge for LSD possession (thank God or whatever higher powers that be)
- Started my old machinist job back.
- Became a follower of the carnivore diet.

2019:
- Became a heavy follower of Dr. Jack Kruse. Began experimenting with Kruse's high seafood Epi-paleo Leptin RX as well as the Cold Thermogenesis Protocol (frequent ice baths at 55 degrees).
- By spring 2019, I developed severe chemical sensitivity, panic attacks, and mold allergies.
- In spring 2019, I took a security job in Odessa, TX in the desert. This job allowed me to sit in the sun and relax for hours a day. While moving to the desert didn't make me feel much better, it was instrumental in stopping my decline.
- The company I was working for closed down in August 2019, so I left Odessa and moved back home.
- Throughout 2019 fall/winter and early winter 2020, dealt with horrible histamine issues. Read Dr. Lawrence Afrin's book on Mast Cell Activation, found an allergist, and began treatment.


2020: Present Day
- Currently working a job at Costco. It was the only job I could find during this virus hysteria.
- Sleep is still ***t.
- Diet is mostly eggs, small amounts of beef, white potatoes, coke, apples, sugar, sardines, and liver.


CURRENT MEDICATIONS:
- 25-50 mg Seroquel for sleep
- 1 mg diazepam (almost completely weaned off. Doctor put me on in last summer for panic attacks at 5 mg daily).
- Cromolyn Sodium (Mast cell stabilizer)
- Famotidine (H2 blocker)
- Allegra (H1 blocker)


SUPPLEMENTS:

I've spent probably over $15,000 in the last 3 years and tried over 100 supplements. Most didn't help at all. Some (like b-vitamins or copper) helped initially, but then quit helping. Overall, I've become weary of most supplements. At the moment, I occasionally will take some digestive enzymes or ox bile. I also use baking soda orally for constipation (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). I'd like to start using methylene blue, but considering I'm on seroquel (an SSRI), I'm holding off for now to avoid any risk of serotonin toxicity.


My LSD trips from 2017 instilled within me a hyper-fascination about life, biology, physics, spirituality, and history. I've spent the last 3 years researching every aspect of health and nutrition trying to cure myself. Both Dr. Jack Kruse and Dr. Ray Peat took me beyond the old, broken "diet and supplement" paradigm of health to realms I never could have imagined before. While I haven't touched psychedelics since 2017, the last 3 years have been their own psychedelic trip in some sense with all the incredible knowledge people like Jack Kruse, Ray Peat, and many others have laid out for me.

My journey has taken me beyond health into questioning the very society I was raised in. I've become quite disillusioned with Big Pharma, Hollywood, and industrial society as a whole. In addition to creating some level of health, my hope is to live as simply as possible. To regain my creativity. To escape the black whole the crony-capitalist society I was raised in. To eventually escape the big city and lead a simpler life in a country like Mexico, Thailand, or South America and to spend my days living a low-stress, pro-thyroid lifestyle.

Due to poor thyroid, low creativity, and high apathy, my thoughts are quite jumbled and chaotic. I intend to use this log to record my daily progress and thoughts as I build my life back up.

Have you tried going 100% carnivore for a few weeks?
 

S.Seneff

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2020
Messages
215
Hi, have you tried theanine ?
 

orangeUglad

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Messages
153
Insane story..I wish all the best for you..Have you tried raw oysters and can you tolerate dairy?
 

Iqa

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
7
Bro I hope you're healing. Here's some info that might help.

I would first stop Allegra and Famotidine.

These may be contributing to your constipation, stomach problems, and nightmares.

There's some research on this forum that says Famotidine is anti-serotonin which I've personally tested. I tried taking it at night and in the morning, I would get breast pain (I'm male) and depressed thoughts. I'd also get nightmares. So I stop taking it and then by coincidence, my gf starts taking this for her ulcer (doctor's suggestion). She does great for a week or so but the longer she's on it she gets the same symptoms plus nightmares about our guinea pig. It's odd because she thinks of our guinea pig like a child and prolactin is involved in pregnancy.

I believe it's possible Famotidine is anti-serotonin but only for a short-time. The body is a great balancer. The spike in dopamine from the drop in serotonin likely causes high prolactin in the long run (from this medicine in particular):
Histaminergic regulation of prolactin secretion (h2 antagonists):
Histaminergic regulation of prolactin secretion - PubMed

Hyperprolactinemia and galactorrhea with standard-dose famotidine therapy:
SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals
(This article is behind a paywall but the summary is basically a 40mg dose of famotidine caused high prolactin)

Famotidine is also known for causing nutrient deficiencies and I'm assuming Allegra could do the same: B12, calcium, zinc, vitamin D, folic acid, iron:
famotidine.png


Likewise be careful about anything that lowers your stomach acid. Even high dose zinc (if you're getting too much from too many oysters) could be causing constipation:
Zinc salts provide a novel, prolonged and rapid inhibition of gastric acid secretion
Zinc salts provide a novel, prolonged and rapid inhibition of gastric acid secretion - PubMed

Maybe try Cyproheptadine (not sure how that interacts with your Seroquel) and eat nutrient rich foods while not using the typical anti-histamines. I don't know if this will help your insomnia but I hope it can steer you in the right direction. One last thing: try getting a lot of sunlight in the morning with Riboflavin. You might have circadian rhythm problems. If you have lowish cortisol, then you might not be making much in the morning and then later on in the evening, your body is producing more cortisol causing insomnia. The more natural blue light exposure in the morning you receive, the more likely your body is going to produce melatonin at night. The Riboflavin will reset the circadian rhythm:

Vitamin B2-based blue-light photoreceptors in the retinohypothalamic tract as the photoactive pigments for setting the circadian clock in mammals
Vitamin B2-based blue-light photoreceptors in the retinohypothalamic tract as the photoactive pigments for setting the circadian clock in mammals - PubMed

Vitamin B2 (FAD) (not Light) May Control The Circadian Clock
Vitamin B2 (FAD) (not Light) May Control The Circadian Clock
 

BearWithMe

Member
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
2,020
Bro I hope you're healing. Here's some info that might help.

I would first stop Allegra and Famotidine.

These may be contributing to your constipation, stomach problems, and nightmares.

There's some research on this forum that says Famotidine is anti-serotonin which I've personally tested. I tried taking it at night and in the morning, I would get breast pain (I'm male) and depressed thoughts. I'd also get nightmares. So I stop taking it and then by coincidence, my gf starts taking this for her ulcer (doctor's suggestion). She does great for a week or so but the longer she's on it she gets the same symptoms plus nightmares about our guinea pig. It's odd because she thinks of our guinea pig like a child and prolactin is involved in pregnancy.

I believe it's possible Famotidine is anti-serotonin but only for a short-time. The body is a great balancer. The spike in dopamine from the drop in serotonin likely causes high prolactin in the long run (from this medicine in particular):
Histaminergic regulation of prolactin secretion (h2 antagonists):
Histaminergic regulation of prolactin secretion - PubMed

Hyperprolactinemia and galactorrhea with standard-dose famotidine therapy:
SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals
(This article is behind a paywall but the summary is basically a 40mg dose of famotidine caused high prolactin)

Famotidine is also known for causing nutrient deficiencies and I'm assuming Allegra could do the same: B12, calcium, zinc, vitamin D, folic acid, iron:
famotidine.png


Likewise be careful about anything that lowers your stomach acid. Even high dose zinc (if you're getting too much from too many oysters) could be causing constipation:
Zinc salts provide a novel, prolonged and rapid inhibition of gastric acid secretion
Zinc salts provide a novel, prolonged and rapid inhibition of gastric acid secretion - PubMed

Maybe try Cyproheptadine (not sure how that interacts with your Seroquel) and eat nutrient rich foods while not using the typical anti-histamines. I don't know if this will help your insomnia but I hope it can steer you in the right direction. One last thing: try getting a lot of sunlight in the morning with Riboflavin. You might have circadian rhythm problems. If you have lowish cortisol, then you might not be making much in the morning and then later on in the evening, your body is producing more cortisol causing insomnia. The more natural blue light exposure in the morning you receive, the more likely your body is going to produce melatonin at night. The Riboflavin will reset the circadian rhythm:

Vitamin B2-based blue-light photoreceptors in the retinohypothalamic tract as the photoactive pigments for setting the circadian clock in mammals
Vitamin B2-based blue-light photoreceptors in the retinohypothalamic tract as the photoactive pigments for setting the circadian clock in mammals - PubMed

Vitamin B2 (FAD) (not Light) May Control The Circadian Clock
Vitamin B2 (FAD) (not Light) May Control The Circadian Clock
This post is awesome, thank you Iqa!
 

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