Decreasing temperature

[Vivien]

Hi All,

I'm new to this type of eating. I've been eating high fat low carb in the last 1.5 years and I just changed to Peating 10 days ago.

I'm 37, and I have quite bad hormonal problems. I have fibrocystic breasts, meaning that after ovulation, as my estrogen levels rising rapidly, my breasts become full of very painful cysts, which goes away with menstruation. During these times my estrogen, adrenaline, cortisol levels are very high (confirmed with saliva tests), my body retains lots of water, my muscles are very tense, cramping, painful, and it's hard to fall asleep.

I've been using progesterone cream in the last 5 months that helps a lot. However, my hormones still fluctuate a lot and I can have high cortisol and adrenaline regardless of my menstrual cycle.

In the first couple of days starting Peating I felt quite good. My body temperature was high when I started (37 C in the morning that went up to 37.3 C during the day - oral measurement). However, after 4 days on this diet, my body temperature started to drop and decreasing every day.

Morning / Max daytime / Salt
day 1 : 37.01 C / 37.15 C / 2 tsp
day 2 : 37.00 C / 37.50 C / 2 tsp
day 3 : 36.97 C / 37.37 C / 2.25 tsp
day 4 : 37.07 C / 37.30 C / 2.25 tsp
day 5 : 36.92 C / - / 2.25 tsp
day 6 : 36.79 C / - / 2.75 tsp
day 7 : 36.62 C / 37.15 C / 3.25 tsp
day 8 : 36.59 C / 37.20 C / 3.25 tsp
day 9 : 36.65 C / 37.07 C / 3.25 tsp
day 10 : 36.40 C / 36.87 C / -

As my body temperature decrease I feel terrible. I have constant headache yesterday, my muscles are very tense, when I wake up in the morning I full of sweat while my temperature is dropping, sometimes during the day I feel cold, my body retains a lots of water. My menstruation has started 2 days ago so these symptoms should be improving not getting worse.

On the day 1-3 I eat 2 tsp of salt, 2.25 tsp on day 4-6, and on day 7-10 I increased the salt to 3.25 tsp. I increased the salt because I had more water retention and my estrogen level also raised quickly (my breasts become very painful ans swollen) so I though I should increase the salt according these symptoms.

I drink about 1-1.5 liters OJ, 1 liter skim milk with sugar and honey, coffee, and I eat 2 eggs, some cheese, gelatin, some meat, grapes, dates, little raisins, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1 raw carrot.

I don't know what to do. Whether am I doing something wrong? I'm very afraid gaining more weight, because in the last year I gained a lot, and I totally freaked out gaining more weight due to this huge amount of sugar (about 300 gram/day). It is hard for me to believe that I won't gain weight with sugar especially if my metabolism is slowing down. I already cannot fit into most of my dresses.

But my biggest problem is that since I started this diet my temperature is dropping and I feel terrible. I don't know whether this is just a coincidence and this would have happened regardless of Peating. Or I'm just eating too much salt. But how could my cortisol and adrenalin increase if I eat this much salt and sugar?

Should I further increase the salt and sugar, or should I decrease the salt?

Vivien

 

[Dan W]

Hi Vivien, welcome to the forum.

A few thoughts:

1. It's theoretically possible for your temperatures (and sense of well-being) to drop as stimulating stress-hormones disappear in response to adequate sugar, etc. Is this diet radically different than what you were eating before?
2. Do you have any prior temperature measurements? Could this temperature drop around menstruation be normal?
3. For the moment, I would try not to worry about weight-gain (maybe easier said than done) and instead focus on troubleshooting your temperatures and how you feel. I suspect if we can figure out those two issues, controlling fat gain will be relatively easy.

Unfortunately I don't have any concrete suggestions, but I'm sure other forum members will have some ideas.

 

[Mittir]

Welcome to the forum

Your lowest temperature 36.4 ,is still very close to normal temperature.
Did you measure your temperature before starting this diet?
RP suggest measuring morning temperature 2 hours after breakfast.
Early morning temperature could he high due to high cortisol.
All these sugar should lower your cortisol and this can lower your
temperature. Are you getting 80 grams of protein?
If you see this diet is increasing your weight, you can always
cut down your calories from fat and sugar.
You need 33 to 50 percent of your calories from sugar.
Adding liver is important for it's B vitamins and other nutrients.
In an interview RP said that, for females it may take about 6 weeks
to achieve a steady good result.
It is a good idea to make changes slowly,starting with the
core recommendations. You may try lowering salt and see what happens.
We had to go through a lot of self experimentation to find a right set of foods.
In a weak state, even good food can cause problems.

 

[Vivien]

Hi Dan and Mittir

Thank you for your comments.

1. Currently not just my temperature dropped but my adrenalin and cortisol is very high currently (I recognize it from my symptoms). So the stress hormones become higher since I started this diet. And yes, my diet is quite different now. My total carb was between 50-100 gram/day, and now I'm eating about 300 grams. I ate a lots of fat (coconut, butter, cream) now I decreased a lot. My protein consumption remained the same around 70-80 gram/day.



2. My situation is a bit complicated. My body temperature was very low since my childhood and I always felt cold. Around 36 C sometimes lower. But this changed about 1.5 years ago when it went above 37, or more, 37.2C in the morning, but this was due to stress hormones.

I used contraceptive pills for about 15 years but not because I wanted but without it I had the same issues with fibrocystic breasts that I have now without it. However, 1.5 years ago my body couldn't tolerate the pill any more but my doctor prescribed me additional estorgen to my pill because I had spotting bleeding. It mad everything worse and messed up with my week thyroid and adrenals.

I stopped all hormones, started eating low carb, high fat, but the stress hormones remained high, fibrocysctic breasts become extremely bad. Free T3 thyroid hormone was low, and reverse T3 very high, temperature around 37.5 C, but I still felt very cold all the time shivering. Cortisol 40 times higher during night that it should have been (saliva test).

Then I had a iodine urinary test done that showed that I have severe iodine deficiency. So I started supplemented with iodine (Lugol's Solution) according Dr Brownstein, who is one of the leader researcher and doctor in this field. Just in 2 months, the free T3 and reverse T3 went back to normal and no longer felt cold. My temperature went back to 37-37.2. Adrenalin and cortisol decreased but they were still high but they fluctuate a lot. Breasts improved, but still not OK. I also started using progesterone cream that helped too.

That was the time when I started thinking that probably the low carb elevates the stress hormones. So now I'm here, on day 10 and my cortisol and adrenalin is so high currently that every waking time is just suffering.

And I don't know whether I should increase the salt and sugar or decrease them.

 

[honeybee]

Are you in the first half of your cycle? If you are, I think it's fairly common for temps to drop and then rise after ovulation.
Seems like you're doing a lot all at once.
Try looking into progest-e-there's lots of info on here about that. I did high dose iodine a couple years ago. I wished I hadn't.

 

[Mittir]

Large dose of iodine can be very dangerous. RP does not like this approach.
High estrogen lowers temperature and cortisol increases temperature.
Also hypothyroid person can have normal core body temperature but
cold extremities. progesterone balances out high estrogen.
If 300 grams of sugar does not lower your cortisol then it is kind of
complicated. Small frequent meals, each meal with sugar, protein and
some oil helps to maintain blood sugar steady and cortisol in check.
Stomach irritating foods increase serotonin and estrogen and lowers
thyroid conversion in liver. It is very important to eat simple food and
avoid food causing irritation. Soluble fiber in orange juice can cause lot of
problem with sensitive stomach. Check if any of the new food you have introduced
causing problem. Large dose of salt can irritate stomach.
Gelatin can feed bad bacteria too, if it is not digested properly.
Are you used to drinking milk?

 

[chris]

In the past I used collosal amounts of iodine, with minimal success. I believe the various aspects we discuss here are superior to iodine. I have seen iodine being referred to as a "band-aid" in the past, masking the issue instead of solving the underlying problem. (thyroid)