Coming from low-carb, with a whole host of issues!

[tara]

post 109561

post 109489

post 109410 Calcium suppresses metabolism/thyroid, ...

I think this is the opposite of what Peat says.
But he does recommend eating regular oyster to ensure adequate zinc, and getting the other co-factors too.

Yes, but zinc and the other co-factors need to be properly balanced with calcium and that's not really possible when you consume many grams of it! 2 quarts of milk = 2.4g calcium. You need a 1:1 of Ca:Mg in most cases, it's not really possible to get more than 2g Mg from diet. Also, it's not possible from supplementation, it wouldn't even be tolerable. And even if you could consume that much somehow, or supplement it; it wouldn't be retained because Calcium is suppressing your thyroid, depleting you of zinc, and inhibiting your ability to retain Mg. That's why people here need to take progesterone/pregnenolone/vitamin E. They are suppressing their thyroids with too much calcium/copper and need to take all these pro thyroid substances to try and balance it out. And from what I see here, in most cases that isn't working for people very well. And I guess if you consume a stack of oysters everyday that may be enough zinc, but again that isn't realistic to think people are going to eat that amount of oysters. Also, eating that many oysters would overload you with copper and heavy metals!

I can't think of a more effective way to suppress metabolism/thyroid than consuming 2 quarts of milk daily and high copper foods like liver.

And I'm not necessarily criticizing that way of eating. If consuming 2-4g of calcium and eating oysters/liver and fruit/OJ work, then that's great. However, those people seem to be a minority. I am speaking more about the people that this way of eating doesn't work for.

HI Derek,
In the interests of helping people to learn about Peat's views, it would be helpful if you would make it clear when you are presenting your own ideas, and when you are presenting Peat's. Unless you spell it out, some people - especially newcomers - may be mislead into to thinking that your posts represent Peat's views.

If you haven't yet read/listened to enough of Peat's articles/interviews to know when you differ from him, maybe you could read some more, and in the meantime flag such posts to let people know you don't yet know what Peat says about it?

I understand you are trying to help, and I'm not saying you are necessarily wrong - I just want us to keep this difference clear for readers. :)

 

[Ulla]

post 109415
Calcium becomes problematic when PTH is high and there are insufficient vitamin A, D, K, and magnesium to lower it. Without these calcium goes into soft tissue and into the cell and disrupts magnesium from activating ATP--greatly lowering cellular energy/metabolism.

But if you are able to lower PTH with these things you can eat all the calcium you want as it will quickly go into bones and teeth when it enters the blood and won't disrupt metabolism or interfere with other minerals like magnesium and zinc.

I definitely agree though that without getting PTH down significant amounts of calcium in the diet will disrupt metabolism severely. I experienced this multiple times until I figured it out. I think it's a common reason why people do poorly on a high dairy diet.

if looking blood panel, which parameters could tell about PTH status?
maybe calcium, alkaline phosphatase, magnesium?

 

[Ulla]

post 105066

Have any of you ever overcome insulin resistance? I like Peat's ideas, but dairy is a HUGE problem. It just doesn't get along with any of my bodily processes, dammit!

Hey. How are things going with you? :)
Are acne better now?

 

[Emstar1892]

Hello everyone, thanks for asking how I'm doing, I haven't logged in for ages! I'm fine for the time being, but i have been having increasingly worrying symptoms. Basically, i got an achey, swollen feeling in my neck a few months ago, along with lethargy and depression. I correlated all this with healing/blood sugar disregulation so didn't really stress.

But my neck is now very swollen, as are the surrounding lymph nodes, and my voice is hoarse. Swallowing is becoming an issue. I had some blood work done, and all came back normal except white blood cells and lymphocytes, both of which are very low. A doctor examined me and wants to do a thyroid ultrasound, in case its lymphoma or thyroid cancer. Not to scare you all, just putting it out there. (also worth noting that my dad had the latter.)

The scan is next week, obviously i dont want it to be either, (nor do i want it to remain a mystery.) but to be honest, a part of me wants it to be what my dad had, because in my opinion it might explain all of the other symptoms I've mentioned in this thread. We'll see.

Sorry if this concerns anyone, there are far worse off people in the world and relatively I'm very lucky, so worry not. I just thought you might be interested to find out what happens!

:)

 

[tara]

Hi Emstar,
Hope this turns out to be OK, and just a passing thing. Keep us posted if you want to.

 

[Emstar1892]

Hey Tara. Thanks for the kind words. I had the ultrasound and nothing showed up, so it's a mystery why my lymph nodes are acting like this! I'm wondering, so you think it could be to do with an immune problem like hashimotos?

 

[Emstar1892]

Also wonder if anyone has an opinion on these tests I took today?

TSH 2.29 (0.27-4.20) mU/L

Free T4 12.9 (12.0-22.0) pmol/L

Free T3 3.4 (3.1-6.8) pmol/L

 

[tara]

I had the ultrasound and nothing showed up, so it's a mystery why my lymph nodes are acting like this! I'm wondering, so you think it could be to do with an immune problem like hashimotos?

Sorry, I don't know about this. For me, lymph nodes in the neck come up when I'm fighting infection, like colds etc. Glad the scan didn't show cancer, but do you know if it showed any enlargement?

Also wonder if anyone has an opinion on these tests I took today?

Those numbers are in the normal range according to most drs, but Peat has said people are seldom/never really healthy with TSH above 2, and under 1 would be better. If you are covering basic nutrition, you might consider some cautious thyroid supplementation. If you do, please start with a low dose (eg 1/4 grain), and don't increment until at least 2-3 weeks.) And monitor temps and resting pulse.

 

[Emstar1892]

Thanks Tara.

I'm struggling, if I'm honest, but trying to stay positive. My hair is showing visible patches now, and I'm going to bed in thermals with the heating on, waking up shivering. My GP said I have to wait till my TSH is 10. I went private today, which cost me £150. The lady I met took my pulse (38 after climbing stairs). And said I'm probably low in vitamin D, and that my 2.3 TSH is 'textbook.' She then said the t3 and t4 are 'borderline low,' but that it's 'like a car, the limits there for a reason. Go beyond it, you're in trouble. Go within it, you're safe.' She then said 'natural thyroid isn't in the medical book, so I wouldn't give it to you anyway. If you need thyroid, you can have levothyroxine, but I need to see a value of 10.' I left crying, with no money left in my savings.

 

[Blossom]

I'm sorry to hear you had such a disappointing doctors appointment @Emstar1892. It seems a bit strange to me that your heart rate of 38 wasn't concerning enough to the doctor to warrant further investigation. Perhaps you could familiarize yourself with the local regulations on importing supplements. I know IdeaLabs ships to some countries outside the U.S.

 

[Emstar1892]

She just told me I must be "really healthy" and doing loads of exercise. My blood pressure was crazy low too (I see stars every time i stand up.) I explained that I haven't been able to do exercise (as in, literally anything) in months, and she said it must just be because i'm young. Sigh. Thanks for your words :)

 

[cantstoppeating]

If you're exercising, stop it for now.

Try eating the following:

Full-fat non-homogenised milk and fruit like whole oranges. Since you're in the UK, you can get organic full-fat milk from sainsburys, tesco or asda. The cheapest non-homogenised full-fat milk can be ordered from Abel&Cole. 4-6 fresh oysters, or a can of oysters, a week.

Enter the foods you eat into a website like cronometer.com. Eat at maintenance calories (google it).

Take niacinamide at 125mg three times a day.

This plan of action will help you get started to feeling better without overloading you with details. Report back how you get on.

 

[tara]

It seems a bit strange to me that your heart rate of 38 wasn't concerning enough to the doctor to warrant further investigation.

Yes, especially with all the symptoms.

My hair is showing visible patches now, and I'm going to bed in thermals with the heating on, waking up shivering. My GP said I have to wait till my TSH is 10.

That GP sounds like an exceptional hazard. Most will recognise a problem if you get up over TSH 5. A TSH of 1 would still be well inside the dr's range, and opefully you can get closer to that soon.

I'm concerned about not having an explanation for the swelling in your neck. If something serious is going on there, it's hard to know how it will respond to changes when we don't know what it is.

Other than that, more thoughts.
Do you have evidence of blood sugar dysregulation other than your own smptoms? Or are you just guessing insulin resistance based on feeling crappy sometimes?
My hunch is that since:
- you have very low basic heartrate with patches of faster heartrate (maybe high adrenaline)
- you are right at the bottom of the theoretical 'normal' BMI (ie just above dangerously low, and we don''t know what is optimal for you), and
- at last report you were only eating about 2000 cals - which is only about 2/3 of what is normal for a woman your age, and
- you have a history of much lower nutrition than even now, which you don't seem to have recovered from
- get dizzyness when not eating, low heartrate, low temps (low energy, maybe low blood sugar)
- amenorrhea

My guess is that undernourishment may be a key part of the problem. Low metabolism including low thyroid and likely low progesterone could be partly caused by long term-semi-starvation. It's hard to know in advance how much of your issues can be resolved by significantly increasing nutrition. I very much doubt that you can recover without increasing this a lot, but other tactics may also be needed.

I don't think you have any obvious serious digestive trouble? You can eat most foods without pain/diarrhea, etc?

Here's a possible approach. I hve no guarantees that it will work, but it seems like a possible way forward. None of us here can know exactly what you need most, so you are still going to have to use your own judgement, and get whatever useful medical support you can (not your current GP, frrom the looks of it). This is based on my readings of Youreatopia as well as Peat, and I don't guarantee that Peat would agree with it all.

Plug your typical daily diet into cronometer, and assess what you are getting. Find ways to increase foods to get at least:

• - 3000 cals/day (based on Gwyneth's ideas at youreatopia). I think you need more than maintenance calories - you still have some growing to do, as well as repair to your organs and your metabolism. I think you will probably need a lot more energy/calories than you have been getting for years. You've probably built up quite a deficit. If you get hungry for more, eat more, but don't eat less. (You can find lots of sites that say 2000 cals is enough. I think they are likely based on poor research, and best ignored.) Whether it's best for you to immediately go straight to 3000 cals or increase more gradually over a week or two or longer I don't know. But I doubt that you can really start healing till you get it well up from where you are now. There are some possible bumps on this route - eg read about Phases of Recovery, and Tummy Troubles on Youreatopia.
  
• - Get at least 80-100 g protein, mostly from animal protein and potatoes if you can digest them. If they agree with you, include milk/cheese, gelatine, seafood, occasional oysters, liver. For reference, 80-100 protein is about a dozen large eggs, or half a kilo of beef.
  
• - Make sure you are generously covering the minimal requirements for all the minerals and vitamins (but not PUFA, and don't go overboard on iron unless you've been measured as low in it). If you can't get them all from food, consider supplementing. Some of us supplement B-vits and the fat-soluble vitamins, calcium, magnesium, occasional others.
  
• - Minimise polyunsaturated fats as much as you can and still get in all the food you need - PUFA fried foods, nuts, not too much salmon and other oily fish. (If you happen to love any of these, having a little now and then may not be a big deal, if it helps you not get too restricted and deprived feeling.)
  
• - Let your appetite guide what proportions you eat of sugar (fruit, juice, honey etc and mayby a bit of refined sucrose), starch ( eg potatoes, rice, porridge), saturated fat (coconut oil, cocoa butter, milkfat, fat in beef and lamb). Some veges that you like. Once you've got going, you can pay attention to what seems to serve you, and adjust for more or less sugar or starch or fat (but still getting enough overall).
  
• - Eat at least 5 times a day with some protein and carbs and fat at each meal, and juice, milk, milkshakes, smoothies in between.
• - Salt food to taste.
• - If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, experiment with eating more or less at evening meal and/or supper. (For me, I seem to benefit from eating more than half my day's food by the end of lunch time. Sometimes I've needed sugar at supper to sleep, sometimes not.)
• Do your best to get as much rest and sleep as you need. Your body may respond to sufficient calories by tellin gyou it is now time to rest, digest, and let the repair begin. There can be some initial bloating. I don't know if there is a way around that. There may be. But stopping eating is not a sustainable way forward.
  
• - See if you can find a doctor who is experienced with recovering from anorexia and similar, and preferably one who isn't scared of food and fat (ie won't caution you to be careful to limit calories and not get fat). Whether or not you have anorexia yourself, there are some issues that can arise during recovery from severe undereating that someone familiar with anorexia is more likely to understand. And someone who knows that bradychadia and dizzyness are issues to be taken seriously. There are some medical risks with refeeding. If you get refeeding syndrome, you need urgent medical care - treatable, but dangerous if not treated. Your dr needs to know that you have had prolonged periods of near starvation, and are trying to undo that.
  
• - Maybe consider seeing if you can get either a blood test meter or a refractometer that will measure in the range of about brix 0-10 (not one for measuring honey at 80+ %). Then you can check your blood or urine sugars yourself, rather than going just by hunch. If it is consistently very high, the strategy could be a bit different than if you are getting some significant lows.

-Keep measuring temps and heart rate from time to time. Once you've got your nutrition up consistently for a while, see if they and your general energy levels are improving. At that point it might be worth assessing whether some progesterone or cautious supplemention of thyroid might be useful. I would not start with much thryoid while starving - you need fuel to support it, or it may cause more stress and catabolism. There are various sources of thyroid supps around - I don't know which ones you can get, but maybe some of the sources discussed on this forum will be accessible for you. I started out with a little daily chicken neck soup, and I think that did me good. I now have some nutrimeds and awaiting Haidut's tyromax.

If your throat issues seems to get worse, I'd keep trying to gt someone to help figure out what's going on.

See if you can find other support in your area, so you get some counter-balance to your parents' message to not eat.

Acne seems to be tricky for many people. Personally, while I know it's a real pain, and probably doesn't represent perfect health, I would consider it pretty low priority compared with the low heart-rate, dizzyness etc, and whatever is going on round your throat.

Also, you will almost certainly gain weight when you eat more. Don't freak out and stop eating because of this. You probably have muscles, bones and internal organs to grow and strengthen, since you have starved through your natural growth years. It is very likely that the first thing that happens is that you gain fat, before your body has received adequate nutrition for long enough to trust that the supply will continue, and to trust that it doesn't have to store every extra calorie for the next prolonged famine. Read the Phases of Recovery on Youreatopia.

And keep reading and listening to Peat, and learning about how the body works, and seeing what else you can figure out. :)

Good luck. :)

 

[Amazoniac]

I would second Girrafe's suggestion on improving liver function.
You mentioned that you work from 8am-7pm. Unless you go out in the sun during the intervals wearing a bikini, you can have insufficient levels of vit D, I suggest that you try to experiment obtaining from the sun if that's possible.
A lot of the things that people with acne struggle can be resolved by doing that, including the common deficiencies. You balance the fat-soluble vitamins you improve the transport and use of minerals, including zinc. At the same time, with their proper balance you improve liver function, insulin sensitivity (in fact I think that haidut already mentioned vit D restoring it) and I posted on a thread on gallbladder issues a link from a doctor that noticed a strong correlation in her patients between low vit D levels and abnormal B vits production.
Why 1892 and not 1992?

 

[Amazoniac]

Oh, I just read that your doctor also suggested low vit D; one more reason to experiment with that..

 

[Strongbad]

Maybe you're experiencing candida overgrowth?

 

[Emstar1892]

Thanks everyone, really, thank you all for offering your advice, especially to help someone you don't know!

This is the state of things - I've found an endocrinologist near me who happily presrcribes Armour and tests for things like cortisol, DHEA, etc, however, I live in central London and a private endocrinologist like this is going to cost £380 for an initial consultation, then £200 for lab tests, then £200 for each follow up (regardless of whether he even prescribes me anything.) I can't help but think that with all that money down the drain, I'd rather than be sick than 'well'!!!

Seeing as the NHS here will do nothing to help me, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.

I will be importing a very low dose of thyroid from abroad, and am currently choosing between Armour and Naturethyroid - do you guys have any opinions on which is best?

I also am very worried that my cortisol is extremely low. I'm still hypoglycemic constantly, unbearably exhausted during the day, and in a complete brain fog - I suppose it's marginally better than the high cortisol symptoms before, with the insomnia and pounding heart, but my work is suffering with my new "lull." So i'm also planning to purchase a low dose hydrocortisone from abroad (probably following an at-home saliva test for cortisol) - as I don't think I should go on ANY thyroid before knowing what my cortisol is doing)....nor do I think I could actually survive with any further issues.

Do you guys have any thughts about this? Specifically with NDT, at-home cortisol tests and hydrocortisone? I know the last medication is a literal last-resort, but I can't see any other way of healing.

Thanks for all your help again :) I always try to maintain a completely open mind with these things so I'm happy for whatever opinion you have to offer about the above.

 

[zane93]

Thanks everyone, really, thank you all for offering your advice, especially to help someone you don't know!

This is the state of things - I've found an endocrinologist near me who happily presrcribes Armour and tests for things like cortisol, DHEA, etc, however, I live in central London and a private endocrinologist like this is going to cost £380 for an initial consultation, then £200 for lab tests, then £200 for each follow up (regardless of whether he even prescribes me anything.) I can't help but think that with all that money down the drain, I'd rather than be sick than 'well'!!!

Seeing as the NHS here will do nothing to help me, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.

I will be importing a very low dose of thyroid from abroad, and am currently choosing between Armour and Naturethyroid - do you guys have any opinions on which is best?

I also am very worried that my cortisol is extremely low. I'm still hypoglycemic constantly, unbearably exhausted during the day, and in a complete brain fog - I suppose it's marginally better than the high cortisol symptoms before, with the insomnia and pounding heart, but my work is suffering with my new "lull." So i'm also planning to purchase a low dose hydrocortisone from abroad (probably following an at-home saliva test for cortisol) - as I don't think I should go on ANY thyroid before knowing what my cortisol is doing)....nor do I think I could actually survive with any further issues.

Do you guys have any thughts about this? Specifically with NDT, at-home cortisol tests and hydrocortisone? I know the last medication is a literal last-resort, but I can't see any other way of healing.

Thanks for all your help again :) I always try to maintain a completely open mind with these things so I'm happy for whatever opinion you have to offer about the above.

I know that many people start a GoFundMe (other type of services) page to help out with things like this. I don’t know if the rules would allow you to post a link for your self here but it might be worth a shot.
https://www.gofundme.com/Medical-Illness-Healing/
Best of luck!

 

[Emstar1892]

Gosh, what a wonderful website, thanks zane93! I must say I've had a browse through the people on it, and it would feel wrong to include myself among them - at least they have diagnoses, and most often for very serious, late stage disorders. I'll give it a think, but I'm not sure I deserve anyone else's money :)

 

[zane93]

Gosh, what a wonderful website, thanks zane93! I must say I've had a browse through the people on it, and it would feel wrong to include myself among them - at least they have diagnoses, and most often for very serious, late stage disorders. I'll give it a think, but I'm not sure I deserve anyone else's money :)

You need to get well as we all do so we do not end up with advanced late stage issues! I sincerely think you could use the help based on your story so don’t feel bad about asking for a little help.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
― Benjamin Franklin