Blacking out

[Blossom]

post 102951 Very interesting Blossom. Did it take some time for things to regulate? I have done about a week or two of high salt, didn't notice much, but maybe I need to do it longer to experience results?

I never ate much salt growing up but after the incident in my twenties I developed a taste for it and the dizziness and passing out stopped so that convinced me to stop avoiding salt. It was a coworker at a health food store studying to be a nutritionist who recommended I try adding salt. I probably still wasn't high salt by any means but it was enough to be helpful. I'm not sure on the time frame because that was over twenty years ago.
Since I've been reading Peat's work I try to get 5-6000 milligrams per day and that seems to help with adrenaline symptoms. It took a few days of the high amount for my body to adjust but I've mostly kept it up ever since. I can tell if I go too low because I start urinating more frequently and in smaller amounts.

 

[PeatThemAll]

post 102793 My experiment is very sporadic with absolute no consistency. I will say though that for about 2 months, I was faithfully doing 3-4 smoothies per day which included 3/4 cup strained, rinsed, and drained cottage cheese (full fat and low fat), handful of cherries, handful of blueberries, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 2-3 tbs sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and usually 1/4 cup of mineral water or regular water or milk to make it liquidy. That experiment never did me any good. Every 3rd day or so I was eating oysters or liver.

Do you have cravings? Do you 'binge' every now and then?

In my case, although my diet can be very similar to yours, ice cream (more specifically frozen yogurt, 97% fat free) does me in very often. It's either a safeguard to make sure I get enough calories before the day is over (typically after darkness, just before bed) or just because I need that full stomach feeling.

 

[kaybb]

.."I recommend trying 5 carrots/day for a few days and see if ...."

I have to say 5 carrots/day to me is alot. When I was very sick, 1 carrot a day was too much to handle, unless it was a small one. I would eat maybe a half a carrot a day. Now I can handle more but still have to be cafeful. If I get too much then it backs me up bad and it is quite painful. You may be able to handle that much ....that would be amazing to me.

 

[iLoveSugar]

Not much of a craving at all anymore. Just not really hungry to be honest.

 

[iLoveSugar]

Trying my hardest to get salt in, but it literally makes me want to puke everytime. Even Parmesan Reggiano cheese is doing the same thing.

 

[Giraffe]

post 102284 Clonidine is on it's way, and I see a Chiropractic Neurologist on Monday. Maybe he will know more?

Any news from the neurologist's visit?

 

[messtafarian]

Been checking back for this too.

 

[iLoveSugar]

Nothing good to report about the visit. He did a series of tests, and couldn't really figure anything out. He thinks Lyme is effecting me, but the only ones around here are very strict on anti-sugar, anti-carbs, anti-dairy, etc. The wobbly, faint, non-stop adrenaline is still disastrous.

 

[messtafarian]

I also think the Lyme is affecting you. Peat has said that the people he's run into with chronic Lyme got better with balanced thyroid function. But it's too hard to figure out on your own. Maybe find a naturopath who'll work with a Peat diet? Maybe check your cd 57 to put into the differential to see if you need to do more treatment?

I saw a couple of articles on Lyme that said that bringing down ammonia helped. There are some good haidut posts about that.

 

[iLoveSugar]

How does one bring down Ammonia?

 

[Peata]

post 103633 How does one bring down Ammonia?

Thiamine (b1), Ceylon cinnamon, sodium benzoate, Biotin, Lithium, sodium, magnesium. (info found in other threads mostly stuff mentioned by haidut).

 

[iLoveSugar]

Thank you for that.

 

[Peata]

post 103642 Thank you for that.

YW, and out of the ones I have tried, I definitely noticed an instant result with Ceylon cinnamon.

Haidut replies to people on the thread, Afternoon Exhaustion

"Ammonia symptoms are very much like low thiamine - fatigue, inability to sleep well or concentrate on tasks for too long, trouble with short-term memory, etc. Based on the studies I have seen pretty much anybody over the age of 30 has some ammonia problems due to sluggish liver and/or kidneys. You can check by taking some ceylon cinnamon (1g-2g) before going to bed. If you state improves then it's likely ammonia and not low thiamine that is the problem."

"First, taking a teaspoon of cinnamon is way too much. That's like 5g-6g and you only need 1g-2g for maximum effect. So much cinnamon will sharply lower your blood sugar and all kinds of symptoms will pop up.

Second, you won't get benefit if you take every day. Once removed, ammonia takes several days (weeks maybe) to build back up, so you should be taking cinnamon probably once a week. The only people with daily ammonia issues are the ones having liver / kidney disease, severe hypothyroidism, exercising too much or eating 400g+ of protein daily. Hopefully, you are not one of those."

 

[iLoveSugar]

Just ordered from Amazon, thank you!

 

[messtafarian]

post 103643

post 103642 Thank you for that.

YW, and out of the ones I have tried, I definitely noticed an instant result with Ceylon cinnamon.

Haidut replies to people on the thread, Afternoon Exhaustion

"Ammonia symptoms are very much like low thiamine - fatigue, inability to sleep well or concentrate on tasks for too long, trouble with short-term memory, etc. Based on the studies I have seen pretty much anybody over the age of 30 has some ammonia problems due to sluggish liver and/or kidneys. You can check by taking some ceylon cinnamon (1g-2g) before going to bed. If you state improves then it's likely ammonia and not low thiamine that is the problem."

"First, taking a teaspoon of cinnamon is way too much. That's like 5g-6g and you only need 1g-2g for maximum effect. So much cinnamon will sharply lower your blood sugar and all kinds of symptoms will pop up.

Second, you won't get benefit if you take every day. Once removed, ammonia takes several days (weeks maybe) to build back up, so you should be taking cinnamon probably once a week. The only people with daily ammonia issues are the ones having liver / kidney disease, severe hypothyroidism, exercising too much or eating 400g+ of protein daily. Hopefully, you are not one of those."

:). Ha, that was my thread. And inside my differential is Lyme Disease. I'm still looking for a doctor to sign off on my Igenix test.

 

[Sea]

post 103007 .."I recommend trying 5 carrots/day for a few days and see if ...."

I have to say 5 carrots/day to me is alot. When I was very sick, 1 carrot a day was too much to handle, unless it was a small one. I would eat maybe a half a carrot a day. Now I can handle more but still have to be cafeful. If I get too much then it backs me up bad and it is quite painful. You may be able to handle that much ....that would be amazing to me.

That means that you aren't tolerating the carrot fiber. Ray Peat recommends cooked bamboo shoots and some mushroom that I don't know the name of as the safest fibers. Another thing to consider is that the standard bagged orange carrots tend to be much harder than smaller carrots that still have the greens on. I have also found that carrots from farmers markets that are different colors tend to be softer. I did well on orange/tangerine fiber when I had a weak digestive tract so that is also something to consider. Cascara may have a similar effect to fiber, but I don't have experience with it. Large dosages of activated charcoal also have a similar effect to extra fiber and might be a little easier to tolerate.

 

[Sea]

post 102931

No food should cause bloating or cramping. If a food is doing this then you are not digesting it and it is causing more harm than good. If you are tolerating a food, then after you consume it your stomach will not feel any different than before. You should not be able to feel anything sitting in your stomach, no noises should be made, your stomach should feel just as empty as it was before you ate, the only difference is you should no longer be hungry.

Again, I would advise you to stop drinking milk, and to really pay attention to how you respond if you choose to consume oysters, liver, or plain sugar. A significant chunk of the population considers themselves lactose intolerant. From Peat, we know that lactose tolerance along with all digestive capability is based on how fast your metabolism is. From your symptoms you are quite hypothyroid, so I think it is highly unlikely that you are adequately digesting milk. Anything that you don't digest increases serotonin and endotoxin which really lowers your metabolism.

If you were only eating 1 teaspoon of salt/day for 2 months, then you are likely massively deficient in salt. Hypothyroid people can lose their salt very rapidly. I am not even hypothyroid anymore based on the temp/pulse, but if I consume less than 3-4 teaspoons of salt in a day(I always try for more than this) I can feel the negative effect on metabolism so you could have an even higher requirement than this. Ray Peat has written a whole article about salt, and how important it is for metabolism. A lot of your symptoms can be attributed to a sodium deficiency. Here is an excerpt:

"It has been known for many years that decreasing sodium intake causes the body to respond adaptively, increasing the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). The activation of this system is recognized as a factor in hypertension, kidney disease, heart failure, fibrosis of the heart, and other problems. Sodium restriction also increases serotonin, activity of the sympathetic nervous system, and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1), which contributes to the accumulation of clots and is associated with breast and prostate cancer. The sympathetic nervous system becomes hyperactive in preeclampsia (Metsaars, et al., 2006)."

"One way of looking at those facts is to see that a lack of sodium slows metabolism, lowers carbon dioxide production, and creates inflammation, stress and degeneration. Rephrasing it, sodium stimulates energy metabolism, increases carbon dioxide production, and protects against inflammation and other maladaptive stress reactions." (http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml)

Also, an excerpt from Ray Peat's article on water:

"Hypothyroidism is typically associated with increased prolactin secretion. Hypothyroid people typically retain water, while losing salt, so the hypothyroid state is analogous to the salmon that has returned to the river, and to the mice that drink too much salt-free water."

"The typical hypothyroid person loses salt rapidly in the urine (and probably in the sweat, too, though that is usually diagnosed as cystic fibrosis), and retains water, diluting the urine less than normal. The reduced production of carbon dioxide, with increased susceptibility to producing lactate and ammonium, causes the cells to be more alkaline than normal, increasing their affinity for water. The rise of estrogen that usually accompanies hypothyroidism also increases intracellular pH, loss of sodium, and over-hydration of the blood."

"If the basic problem in hypothyroidism is the deficient production of carbon dioxide causing excessive loss of salt and retention of water, resulting in hypo-osmotic body fluids, then we would expect people at high altitude to have better retention of salt, more loss of water, and more hypertonic body fluids. That has been observed in many studies. The increased rate of metabolism at altitude would be consistent with the relatively active "catabolism" of the slightly hyperosmotic condition." (http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/water.shtml)

Lastly, I see you are not eating any fiber. Fiber can really help your liver when your metabolism is still too slow which means your liver probably will be somewhat overloaded. I advise finding a fiber you tolerate and experimenting with the dosage. I recommend trying 5 carrots/day for a few days and see if your energy or metabolism improves.

Thank you for all that. A few things:

How can I replace milk? I seem to have a very hard time covering everything I need. And it seems like EVERYTHING literally just sits in my stomach. I don't know of any food that doesn't. If cutting milk, what should most of my go-to stuff be for the day?

Salt- this is an awful subject for me. I never used it growing up, and still hate it. I try supplementing with it just to get it in, and it bites me. I did half tsp today with water and got extremely nauseated. It was bad. Salting my food is even worse. I have to gag the entire time eating it.

I think that greek yogurt is a good substitute for milk until the metabolism has recovered. I recommend the Siggis or Wallaby brand of nonfat greek yogurt which has more protien than a standard greek yogurt. For carbohydrates I recommend honey. white rice, and fresh squeezed orange juice. Taking aspirin, thyroid, and caffeine(espresso shot or supplement) at the same time you eat should help to improve digestion a bit.

If you put salt in a liquid it should help to let the liquid sit for several hours before drinking it. The longer you wait, the more the salt will have time to completely dissolve into the liquid which should minimize any irritation. If you put just a small pinch of salt in your mouth and really let it dissolve into your saliva does it still cause gagging? Possibly you will need to increase carbohydrate intake before you can tolerate more salt, but this is just a guess.