Cramps Keep Getting Worse and I Already Loaded on Potassium And it Doesn't Help. Finally Figured out Why- Sharing

[yerrag]

@sugarbabe just made me regret posting short and sweet. Apparently I have to write a book. When I do, it is all because "it's less complicated."

 

[InChristAlone]

When I had a severe hyperventilating panic attack I didn't get cramps I got the tetany sign in my hands. I don't think CO2 is the issue here.

 

[InChristAlone]

@sugarbabe jus7 made regret posting short and sweet. Apparently I have to write a book. When I do, it is all because "it's less complicated."

I don't think you were being short and left out details. I'm not trying to prove you are wrong in your assessment, I'm trying to be of help that all of us can over complicate our health problems when it could be very simple. That's why I love Peat, he brings it back to basics.. salt, sugar, thyroid maybe more protein or vitamin D. For me it's usually calories, protein and salt.

 

[yerrag]

When I had a severe hyperventilating panic attack I didn't get cramps I got the tetany sign in my hands. I don't think CO2 is the issue here.

It's because there,s more to CO2 than just keeping one from hyperventilating. You obviously are quick to the draw despite not even understanding my context. Read.

 

[mostlylurking]

The need arises from the fact that sepsis doesn't cause anything. It is a moniker used to describe a collection of associated physiological abnormalities that have disparate etiologies. It's useful to describe what state a patient is in, but not what is causing that state or how to properly treat it.

Here is an interesting article about sepsis:

Reconsidering Sepsis - Hormones Matter

Thiamine deficiency can develop in patients secondary to inadequate nutrition, alcohol use, or any form of acute metabolic stress. Patients with sepsis are frequently thiamine deficient.

www.hormonesmatter.com

The whole article is worth the time, but here is a quote:

Can We Prevent Sepsis?​

Frankly, the only way to think of this is strengthening the defense. Obviously, the virulence of infection or the seriousness of injury might be great enough to overwhelm a perfect defense system. However, my experience in practice is that few people are truly “fit” in the sense that I have expressed here. It enabled me to perceive that recurrent episodes of febrile lymphadenopathy (sore throat with fever and swollen glands) in two six-year-old children were caused by thiamine deficiency induced by sweet indulgence. In each child, the brain was experiencing inefficient oxidation. This makes the brain irritable, causing it to initiate a complex defensive reaction under the false impression that its owner was being attacked by a microorganism.

I have already stated that the brain must be in command of the defense. Notice that sepsis is associated with confusion. This indicates that the brain is ineffectively energized to meet the demand and is the center of an ineffective defense. The fuel for the brain is glucose and its combination with oxygen (oxidation) is brought about with the assistance of important chemicals known as oxidants. Gasoline is ignited by a spark plug. Glucose is “ignited” by thiamine. The ensuing oxidation must be kept under control and fireguards known as antioxidants have to be provided. Oxidants and antioxidants (vitamins) come from naturally occurring food. Without providing the scientific details, thiamine is both an oxidant and an antioxidant. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and hydrocortisone is well known by most people as a defense against virtually any form of stress.

The Newest Treatment for Sepsis​

It is now possible to understand why thiamine deficiency is such an important consideration in critically ill patients. Thiamine deficiency can develop in patients secondary to inadequate nutrition, alcohol use, or any form of acute metabolic stress. Patients with sepsis are frequently thiamine deficient. Patients undergoing surgical procedures can also develop thiamine deficiency, giving rise to complications such as heart failure, delirium, neuropathy, gastrointestinal dysfunction and unexplained lactic acidosis. The global burden of sepsis is estimated as 15 to 19 million cases annually, with a mortality rate approaching 60% in low-income countries.

The outcome and clinical course of 47 consecutive sepsis patients treated with intravenous vitamin C, hydrocortisone, and thiamine during a seven-month period, were compared with 47 patients who received the present standard therapy. The hospital mortality in the treatment group was 8.5% (4 of 47) compared with 40.4% (19 of 47) in the standard treatment control group. Because this is published material, you would think that this treatment would be immediately taken up in every hospital emergency room. However, until the use of nutrients in the treatment of disease enters the collective psyche of the medical profession, it is unlikely that it will be generally accepted.

 

[yerrag]

I don't think you were being short and left out details. I'm not trying to prove you are wrong in your assessment, I'm trying to be of help that all of us can over complicate our health problems when it could be very simple. That's why I love Peat, he brings it back to basics.. salt, sugar, thyroid maybe more protein or vitamin D. For me it's usually calories, protein and salt.

Some kind of Peater you are.

I guess you missed the part about context. You wear my size shoes?

 

[InChristAlone]

It's because there,s more to CO2 than just keeping one from hyperventilating. You obviously are quick to the draw despite not even understanding my context. Read.

I've been reading about your issue with bacteria for years. I understand what you are saying. Microorganisms are attracted to decaying matter, they are the cleaners of our world. They aren't there to kill you. The bacteria living in our mouths are there because of rotting food particles or decaying bone, if they are in your blood stream how did they get there? I still don't think the bacteria are the issue for your cramping though. What is your diet like? Do you use any hormones or supplements? What are your stress levels?

Low CO2 does cause muscle contraction, I had an acute episode and it caused the contraction of my fingers called the tetany sign, but I'm unsure if what you are experiencing is tetany. I went back and re-read what you said and you first said that you have good sugar metabolism and produce plenty of CO2, so I'm unsure why you then said dealing with the infection is leading to low CO2 production. As the two statements seem to contradict each other.

If you have a high sugar diet the thiamine can be super helpful for the low oxygen at night which could be sleep apnea from autonomic nervous system dysfunction.

Low sodium could be causing the inability to acidify the urine as it's pumping out the other electrolytes making it alkaline. This was happening to me on a high milk, OJ and potato diet. And I would get symptoms when my urine went alkaline. Soidum bicarbonate doesn't acidify urine though? I believe Chris Masterjohn said you know you have too much when your urine goes alkaline. And you need more when it's overly acidic.

 

[InChristAlone]

Coincidentally someone just posted about salt curing muscle cramps. SALT and Muscle Cramps

 

[Perry Staltic]

And that it is.

So what is the point of belaboring this, if I may ask?

My initial comment was simply to point out that sepsis can't inhibit mitochrondrial respiration. Once you based what you said on what Dr. Peat said, I felt a need to clarify the confusion. I'm done if you are.

 

[Perry Staltic]

Because this is published material, you would think that this treatment would be immediately taken up in every hospital emergency room. However, until the use of nutrients in the treatment of disease enters the collective psyche of the medical profession, it is unlikely that it will be generally accepted.

Too much money, prestige and power in maintaining the status quo for real solutions to happen.

 

[Tim Lundeen]

For me, thiamin and other B vitamins, enough Ca (taken with each meal to keep parathyroid low), and enough Mg.

 

[StephanF]

I had cramps before, and always I was able to fix it by loading up on calcium and bananas. But this time, it didn't work. It reminded me of my dad, who often had cramps before, but back then he never did fix it. I don't recall him taking lots of potassium thru food, and even if he did, I'm not sure it would have helped in his twilight years.

I was trying to understand why and searching on Peat's website, I found a clue, that sepsis inhibits mitochondrial respiration, which would confirm what I had been suspecting for a while now but wanted to get some confirmation.


I want to make this brief. The long and short of this is that when the body is busy fighting an infection, it downregulates mitochondrial respiration. When the infection is really bad, or when it is chronic, prolonged downregulation of respiration will leave the body with a deficit of carbon dioxide, as well as carbonic acid and bicarbonates.

This will cause the muscles to lose its ability to relax quickly. What I feel as cramps in my legs would also be felt elsewhere when the cause is not fixed - as I felt the cramp spreading to my back and to my hands. And since the heart is a muscle, it would be affected although in my case I couldn't feel it. But since I have an oximeter that measures the perfusion index (PI), which aive been monitoring for a year already, I could see the PI go down as well @TheSir

I could see acid-base imbalance by measuring my urine pH and saliva pH (breath rate too but since I have good sugar metabolism and CO2 balance it doesn't change that much). Normally, the urine pH should. be lower than the saliva pH (in a well-functioning set of kidneys and lungs, and a balanced nutrition) but in my case my saliva pH is lower than the urine pH.

So, for a quick fix, I had to drink some Coke but since that didn't fix it, I'm taking some baking soda. This should help for a while.

Note: I don't have sepsis but I have an internal infection along the blood vessels' plaque and the biofilm of bacteria woven in with calcium and foam cells. I disturbed the plaque and I opened a Pandora's box. If I left it alone, I think I would still pay a big price - but in old age when I would be pronounced dead because of sepsis. Usually, since patient is dead, no one is likely to look at the cause of death- which bacteria and biofilm are involved - Everyone is happy to move on to the burial.

I noticed that magnesium would help with leg cramps at night. In the book from Suzanne Somers 'Knockout' she wrote about cancer cures from a number of doctors. One of the doctors discussed with her the role of calcium and magnesium. That calcium would make muscles hypertonic and the magnesium would relax them. I copied two pages (100 & 101) from her book, where she talks about that with Dr. Gonzales:

SS: So these two systems work in opposition to help you get through the day?
NG: Yes. Every minor or major stress you have signals the sympathetic system to divert energy, whether it's a job interview or a project you have to finish. And then the parasympathetic allows the body to repair from the day's damage.
SS: Which all brings up a question: What does this have to do with cancer?
NG: [Laughs] Dr. Kelley believed certain people have a strong sympathetic system and a weak parasympathetic, and these people are prone to solid tumors of the breast, lungs, stomach, pancreas, colon, liver, prostate, uterus, and ovaries. People with strong parasympathetic systems tend to get immunological cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, sarcomas.
SS: Are any people balanced with both systems?
NG: Yes, they are the lucky ones and they usually don't get cancer. They have to work really hard to get cancer. And diet is how you bring the autonomic system that is out of balance into balance.
SS: You mean we cap reprogram our tendency to cancer with diet?
NG: Yes, that's the good news. For example with a sympathetic system that's too strong we put them on a vegetarian diet, because there are certain minerals and vitamins in vegetarian food that will turn down the sympathetic tone and turn up the parasympathetic. Parasympathetics are the classic meat eaters, and these are the people who would actually do well on an Atkins-type diet. We call them our Eskimos because that group traditionally ate nothing but meat and fat. Meat turns on the sympathetic system and turns off an overly active parasympathetic system and brings the nervous system in balance.
SS: What do you give the balanced people who do get cancer?
NG: They need to eat fruit, vegetables, plant foods as well as animal foods. The one commonality for all three types of systems is enzymes. There are benefits to having a strong sympathetic or parasympathetic system; it's when it gets out of control that it's a problem. Sympathetic dominants are going to be very smart, organized, good leaders, good engineers. Parasympathetics don't tend to be as disciplined in school or organized, but they can be very creative.
SS: How do you determine what a person's type is? By the kind of cancer that they have?
NG: After twenty years of experience in the clinic, you get to know right away. If they have colon cancer, you know they are a sympathetic dominant, but there are also certain characteristics in the blood work, the way they look, their personalities- and the hair test tells a lot. It gives us the profile on the autonomic nervous system which is critical to how we design the diets and the supplement protocols. Sympathetics need a lot of magnesium and potassium and do terribly with large doses of calcium, whereas parasympathetics need huge amounts of calcium and do terribly on magnesium, which makes them very depressed.
SS: Interesting, because I had breast cancer and I do terribly on calcium and feel great on lots of magnesium.
NG: There you go. And most women are overloading on calcium-- 500 milligrams daily is a sure way to make your breast cancer come back if you are a sympathetic type. It will make you sick and is actually a kind of poison for this type, but the parasympathetic is exactly the opposite. Give her some steak and bacon and some calcium and she is happy as a clam and starts doing better.
SS: More and more patients are developing multiple myeloma. Do you think there's a connection to weed killers and toxins in and around the house?
NG: I think even orthodox physicians are beginning to suspect that myeloma, like lymphomas, might be tied to environmental exposures. I think unquestionably it is. We've seen a real increase in people coming to us with myeloma, and with some people it's heavy metals, and with others- it's radiation exposure in the environment and low-dose chronic radiation exposure, like radon. To me there's no question there are increasing instances of myeloma and an increase in brain tumors.
SS: In my last book, Breakthrough, Dr. Blaylock made a correlation between diet soda and brain tumors.
NG: Yes, and cell phones. I had a patient, thirty-three years old, a lobbyist in Washington, had three kids, and had glioblastoma, which is the worst kind of brain cancer. He lived on his cell phone eight hours a day. I told him he had to give it up. He said he couldn't do that, and ultimately didn't do my program. Three months later he was dead, having done chemo and radiation. I can't prove it was his cell phone, but I'd be willing to bet that was the root of the problem. How can you have that electromagnetic force field two inches from the brain, which is the most delicate organ in the body, and not expect to have a downside to it?
SS: And then birth control pills that give women only four periods a year ... that doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Birdie]

Yerrag have you thought about drinking large quantities of water? I haven't either.

You're welcome.

I know this post will easily get ignored and buried. the ideas take some getting used to. People unfamiliar with Beauchamp and his terrain theory can't connect with this post.

I'd like to expound some more, but know the more details are written, the more it will be ignored for being too long

I rather if member is interested in details, he will post a question whether or not he agrees with what's written.

I've stopped making long form posts. After spending so much time writing, I don't even know if it's time wasted when it doesn't connect with the membership. I will try to entice a reader's curiosity so that he will at least ask why. Or ask me for references.

I really do miss the membership makeup in the past.

I miss that too. Also, we are getting a few disrupters.

 

[yerrag]

I've been reading about your issue with bacteria for years. I understand what you are saying. Microorganisms are attracted to decaying matter, they are the cleaners of our world. They aren't there to kill you. The bacteria living in our mouths are there because of rotting food particles or decaying bone, if they are in your blood stream how did they get there? I still don't think the bacteria are the issue for your cramping though. What is your diet like? Do you use any hormones or supplements? What are your stress levels?

I only use b-vitamins, k2, and vitamin E. The rest I get from food. Have bought haidut supps and they're not being used. I am not Peaty if that means I just have to take steroids and hormones. If they work for you, it's your context. You have different needs and your situation is different. The presence of bacteria in my blood vessels from poor oral hygiene (following dentist advice and. non-advice) is something is a done deal. Failed to prevent, no use crying over spilled milk.

I already explained why the bacteria is what I suspect for the cramps, now you have to tell me why it is impossible for bacteria to cause it.

I don't know if this will help you see what I'm talking about, but I doubt it. You say you pick things up quickly, but your basis is based on what is assumed to be true, so if you can't find it in Google because it's censored, or because it's been blocked from our sight by the med establishment, you don't believe it. So it's not unexpected for you to belittle by own observations on my own self on my own issue, even if I explained it to the best I can.

I would say for you to try to discover something on your own. It is a change in mindset. Then try to share it, and then see the reaction from "educated people."

Since you told me about your research ability, where your relatives would come to you to seek advice, I will tell you about my ability in observing things. I learned things many times this way. I learned how useful the perfusion index is, even though I can't find any study on the use of the perfusion index. I have a koi pond that I don't need to clean every week. Now ai clean the filter twice a year only. And my koi are thriving. I've been doing "Perceive. Think. Act." long before I joined Peat. I've long dispensed with yearly health checkups because it's all nice gizmos and data, but the analysis is shoddy.

I'll ask you this: Taking the Achilles tendon reflex is a Peaty and pretty accurate test, why aren't Peaters ever talking about using it? Have you? This is already proven, as it was advocated by Broda Barnes. Well, it's because you and everyone else, even in RPF, follow the pied piper. For the same reason, everyone in RPF uses HbA1c as a test for blood sugar, despite Peat saying it's not a good test. Yet you can do a more accurate test yourself at home, and I've tried to sell the idea in this forum, yet no one has taken up on it.

You're asking me questions like I'm a newbie to all this, and that I need to study my abc's? That bit about sodium you pulled, if there was a mistake on my part it is because I assumed I'm talking to Peaters who don't avoid salt. You were incensed because as a mother you realized salt is important during pregnancy and your hell and fire response reflexively came out on a poor guy who made the sin of trivializing salt.

And you ask from the perch of an all-knowing owl, and yet talk about cramps without even experiencing one measly cramp in your life. If I wanna get rich, do I ask an heir of a fortune for advice or do I ask Horatio Alger?

The reason I make this thread is to share about something that people normally would discount as a cause, and to bring it to light.

Your reaction is not unexpected., as you expressed doubt about what I said. But it's the chutzpah of sounding like you know and I'm mistaken, because I'm trying to figure out a way out of this cramps, while you sit there saying theoretically I'm overcomplicating as Ray Peat has all the answers, and they're all "simple."

Try asking anyone who's emailed Peat for advice on health matters, and tell me if they have solved their problem based solely on that advice. Try telling me Peat knows their context well, and that his "simple" solution worked.

 

[yerrag]

Thiamine deficiency also causes mitochondrial down regulation in spades, causing a deficit of carbon dioxide, etc.

You might find this article of interest:

Thiamine Deficiency Causes Intracellular Potassium Wasting - Hormones Matter

Whilst I always suspected a link between potassium and thiamine, I hadn't found research elucidating the mechanisms. Thiamine deficiency causes intracellular potassium wasting.

www.hormonesmatter.com

I've stopped b vitamin supp temporarily for 6 days now. Not sure when my cramps began, so that is a possibility. I've been taking 375ng thiamine daily before I stopped it. I stopped it to see if it was causing the huge spO2 drops when I sleep. It doesn't seem to be causing it, so I'm putting myself back on b-vits supp, which is. now mainly b1, b2, b3.

Thanks.

 

[yerrag]

My initial comment was simply to point out that sepsis can't inhibit mitochrondrial respiration. Once you based what you said on what Dr. Peat said, I felt a need to clarify the confusion. I'm done if you are.

I could have posted that reference and spared us the trouble, and it's good that you questioned me.

I'm trying something out now when I post a thread with an idea. As there is effort behind each thread that shares information, I like to know that knowledgeable and inquisitive people are reading and reacting to it.

When I spend a lot more time in making my post complete, and because it is so complete, people who take the effort to read that long post and learned from it may simply just walk away after reading the piece. With no question and no comment. Whereas if I leave them unsatisfied, as what happened to you, you would reply and I would send you the reference.

Its like I'm a professor and I would finish a lecture and ask "Any questions?" If there were no questions or objections, I would know the class wasn't paying attention, or that they simply don't get it.

I may say something so painfully untrue, and if no one reacts, then there is something wrong with their listening skills, or my students must worship me.

So, thank you for your objection.

 

[yerrag]

I noticed that magnesium would help with leg cramps at night. In the book from Suzanne Somers 'Knockout' she wrote about cancer cures from a number of doctors. One of the doctors discussed with her the role of calcium and magnesium. That calcium would make muscles hypertonic and the magnesium would relax them. I copied two pages (100 & 101) from her book, where she talks about that with Dr. Gonzales:

SS: So these two systems work in opposition to help you get through the day?
NG: Yes. Every minor or major stress you have signals the sympathetic system to divert energy, whether it's a job interview or a project you have to finish. And then the parasympathetic allows the body to repair from the day's damage.
SS: Which all brings up a question: What does this have to do with cancer?
NG: [Laughs] Dr. Kelley believed certain people have a strong sympathetic system and a weak parasympathetic, and these people are prone to solid tumors of the breast, lungs, stomach, pancreas, colon, liver, prostate, uterus, and ovaries. People with strong parasympathetic systems tend to get immunological cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, sarcomas.
SS: Are any people balanced with both systems?
NG: Yes, they are the lucky ones and they usually don't get cancer. They have to work really hard to get cancer. And diet is how you bring the autonomic system that is out of balance into balance.
SS: You mean we cap reprogram our tendency to cancer with diet?
NG: Yes, that's the good news. For example with a sympathetic system that's too strong we put them on a vegetarian diet, because there are certain minerals and vitamins in vegetarian food that will turn down the sympathetic tone and turn up the parasympathetic. Parasympathetics are the classic meat eaters, and these are the people who would actually do well on an Atkins-type diet. We call them our Eskimos because that group traditionally ate nothing but meat and fat. Meat turns on the sympathetic system and turns off an overly active parasympathetic system and brings the nervous system in balance.
SS: What do you give the balanced people who do get cancer?
NG: They need to eat fruit, vegetables, plant foods as well as animal foods. The one commonality for all three types of systems is enzymes. There are benefits to having a strong sympathetic or parasympathetic system; it's when it gets out of control that it's a problem. Sympathetic dominants are going to be very smart, organized, good leaders, good engineers. Parasympathetics don't tend to be as disciplined in school or organized, but they can be very creative.
SS: How do you determine what a person's type is? By the kind of cancer that they have?
NG: After twenty years of experience in the clinic, you get to know right away. If they have colon cancer, you know they are a sympathetic dominant, but there are also certain characteristics in the blood work, the way they look, their personalities- and the hair test tells a lot. It gives us the profile on the autonomic nervous system which is critical to how we design the diets and the supplement protocols. Sympathetics need a lot of magnesium and potassium and do terribly with large doses of calcium, whereas parasympathetics need huge amounts of calcium and do terribly on magnesium, which makes them very depressed.
SS: Interesting, because I had breast cancer and I do terribly on calcium and feel great on lots of magnesium.
NG: There you go. And most women are overloading on calcium-- 500 milligrams daily is a sure way to make your breast cancer come back if you are a sympathetic type. It will make you sick and is actually a kind of poison for this type, but the parasympathetic is exactly the opposite. Give her some steak and bacon and some calcium and she is happy as a clam and starts doing better.
SS: More and more patients are developing multiple myeloma. Do you think there's a connection to weed killers and toxins in and around the house?
NG: I think even orthodox physicians are beginning to suspect that myeloma, like lymphomas, might be tied to environmental exposures. I think unquestionably it is. We've seen a real increase in people coming to us with myeloma, and with some people it's heavy metals, and with others- it's radiation exposure in the environment and low-dose chronic radiation exposure, like radon. To me there's no question there are increasing instances of myeloma and an increase in brain tumors.
SS: In my last book, Breakthrough, Dr. Blaylock made a correlation between diet soda and brain tumors.
NG: Yes, and cell phones. I had a patient, thirty-three years old, a lobbyist in Washington, had three kids, and had glioblastoma, which is the worst kind of brain cancer. He lived on his cell phone eight hours a day. I told him he had to give it up. He said he couldn't do that, and ultimately didn't do my program. Three months later he was dead, having done chemo and radiation. I can't prove it was his cell phone, but I'd be willing to bet that was the root of the problem. How can you have that electromagnetic force field two inches from the brain, which is the most delicate organ in the body, and not expect to have a downside to it?
SS: And then birth control pills that give women only four periods a year ... that doesn't make sense to me at all.

I was a long time follower of the Metabolic Typing Diet. I ordered special supplements for my metabolic type. This was based on the ideas of Dr. Kelley. I was able to change my metabolic type from that of a fast oxidizer to a balanced type. What I could never understand is the use of concepts such as parasympathetic and sympathetic. It is beyond my brain capacity, or it was a convenient vessel to preach ideas validated by empirical evidence, but hard to elucidate in more concrete terms like what we learn from Ray Peat.

I could not understand the calcium and magnesium thing as explained by Dr. Kelley, I will just nod my head and believe and follow. But with Ray Peat, I understand the role of each of the electrolytes, not only magnesium and calcium, but sodium and potassium as well. There is meat to the bone, and this is like I can push the pedal to the metal, and I feel it in the engine and in the road.

This is why I find "petal to the metal" metrics such as Perfusion Index to be more relevant to gaging my metabolic (and overall) health than relying on number cruncher metrics such as HRV, whose only acceptance in my opinion is based on marketing it as "space age technology." HRV again touches on parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, and is once again an attempt to use something we can't understand as a way to make us convinced of its science-based foundations.

 

[InChristAlone]

I only use b-vitamins, k2, and vitamin E. The rest I get from food. Have bought haidut supps and they're not being used. I am not Peaty if that means I just have to take steroids and hormones. If they work for you, it's your context. You have different needs and your situation is different. The presence of bacteria in my blood vessels from poor oral hygiene (following dentist advice and. non-advice) is something is a done deal. Failed to prevent, no use crying over spilled milk.

I already explained why the bacteria is what I suspect for the cramps, now you have to tell me why it is impossible for bacteria to cause it.

I don't know if this will help you see what I'm talking about, but I doubt it. You say you pick things up quickly, but your basis is based on what is assumed to be true, so if you can't find it in Google because it's censored, or because it's been blocked from our sight by the med establishment, you don't believe it. So it's not unexpected for you to belittle by own observations on my own self on my own issue, even if I explained it to the best I can.

I would say for you to try to discover something on your own. It is a change in mindset. Then try to share it, and then see the reaction from "educated people."

Since you told me about your research ability, where your relatives would come to you to seek advice, I will tell you about my ability in observing things. I learned things many times this way. I learned how useful the perfusion index is, even though I can't find any study on the use of the perfusion index. I have a koi pond that I don't need to clean every week. Now ai clean the filter twice a year only. And my koi are thriving. I've been doing "Perceive. Think. Act." long before I joined Peat. I've long dispensed with yearly health checkups because it's all nice gizmos and data, but the analysis is shoddy.

I'll ask you this: Taking the Achilles tendon reflex is a Peaty and pretty accurate test, why aren't Peaters ever talking about using it? Have you? This is already proven, as it was advocated by Broda Barnes. Well, it's because you and everyone else, even in RPF, follow the pied piper. For the same reason, everyone in RPF uses HbA1c as a test for blood sugar, despite Peat saying it's not a good test. Yet you can do a more accurate test yourself at home, and I've tried to sell the idea in this forum, yet no one has taken up on it.

You're asking me questions like I'm a newbie to all this, and that I need to study my abc's? That bit about sodium you pulled, if there was a mistake on my part it is because I assumed I'm talking to Peaters who don't avoid salt. You were incensed because as a mother you realized salt is important during pregnancy and your hell and fire response reflexively came out on a poor guy who made the sin of trivializing salt.

And you ask from the perch of an all-knowing owl, and yet talk about cramps without even experiencing one measly cramp in your life. If I wanna get rich, do I ask an heir of a fortune for advice or do I ask Horatio Alger?

The reason I make this thread is to share about something that people normally would discount as a cause, and to bring it to light.

Your reaction is not unexpected., as you expressed doubt about what I said. But it's the chutzpah of sounding like you know and I'm mistaken, because I'm trying to figure out a way out of this cramps, while you sit there saying theoretically I'm overcomplicating as Ray Peat has all the answers, and they're all "simple."

Try asking anyone who's emailed Peat for advice on health matters, and tell me if they have solved their problem based solely on that advice. Try telling me Peat knows their context well, and that his "simple" solution worked.

I also have had bad bacteria in my mouth because of not taking care of issues. For me it may have been one cause for some of my health problems. So I am not discounting oral bacteria at all, I am sorry if it sounded like I was talking down to you. Like I said I've been following some of your threads for yrs. It may have been how you worded the post. We can only suspect bacteria is a direct cause. If it is are you currently doing something to control bacteria in your mouth? I use a waterpik with Lugol's iodine. And plan on getting the last of my decay filled and one tooth removed. Oral bacteria is no joke. I don't think most can have great health while having decay going on in their mouth.

I'm not sure why you reacted this way to my post. You didn't mention you tried salt so I have no idea why it was such a huge deal I brought it up. If I seemed talking down to you that wasn't my intention. I come here to discuss health and nutrition.

 

[yerrag]

Yerrag have you thought about drinking large quantities of water? I haven't either.

I miss that too. Also, we are getting a few disrupters.

Only glad that the forum members are doing a good job as a community to keep these posters reminded of forum rules.

The quality of discourse everywhere has plunged, and it is in no small measure due to the decline of education. It is intentional in the Western world, and it's former colonies.

If I could, I would invite in people I know who can add to the quality of discussions here. Unfortunately, almost all the people in my circles are from the sort of educated background that I now find to be the same sort of people who follow pied pipers.

 

[yerrag]

Low CO2 does cause muscle contraction, I had an acute episode and it caused the contraction of my fingers called the tetany sign, but I'm unsure if what you are experiencing is tetany. I went back and re-read what you said and you first said that you have good sugar metabolism and produce plenty of CO2, so I'm unsure why you then said dealing with the infection is leading to low CO2 production. As the two statements seem to contradict each other.

I'll explain why that isn't contradictory.

Without the bacterial infection, I would have optimal CO2 stores because of very good sugar metabolism. This is what I mean by very good sugar metabolism.

As opposed to someone who has goes thru glycolysis and not thru oxPhos. He would have much less CO2 production. And he would have much lower CO2 stores. He would adapt poorly to stress. For example, in high aititude he would have difficulty breathing because it takes longer for him to adapt to an environment of less oxygen, and since adaptation is much quicker when you use your lungs to maintain acid-base balance, rather than your kidneys. In a CO2 rich and lactate poor person, adaptation is quick and stress free. In a lactate rich person, adaptation is slow and stressful. In the worst case, he may die for his failure to adapt.

Now, let's consider me with the chronic systemic internal (not the gut) bacterial infection. This infection will require constant attention by my immune system to keep under control. The worse the infection, the more resources channeled to deal with the infection.

What is the price to pay for this, as surely there is a cost to it? When ROS is needed to kill bacteria, less resources will be used to produce ATP by the mitochondria. Mitochondrial respiration can be said to be downregulated. There would be less production also of CO2. I don't know if lactic acid would increase, but I suppose it could if oxygen needed for mitochondrial respiration is no more, and an alternate pathway is used that requires no oxygen.

So, from perfect sugar metabolism, but due to bacteria, I am now relegated to very flawed sugar metabolizer.

From being well stocked with CO2 to being low on it, and even high on lactate, I would now have poor acid-base balance.

And because of this, I am experiencing cramps because the balance required to keep calcium going in and out of cells in the continual cycle of contraction and relaxation is no longer around.