Johnson Bagfoot
Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2017
- Messages
- 104
I posted before describing prolonged fatigue and fight/flight activation following SSRI discontinuation.
Since reading this forum and some of the work of RP, I've got some lab tests and tried several pharmaceuticals. The results have confused me even more, so I'm hoping someone might shed light on how to progress. Hopefully this time I can provide information that's more useful within the peat framework.
Diet is generally: milk, oranges, rare steak, small amounts of gelatin (stimulating), some oats, hot chocolate, roast potatoes, leafy dark greens. PUFAs eliminated.
Firstly, symptoms:
-chronic fatigue to the point of being bed or room confined often
-pronounced exercise, heat and sleep deprivation intolerance
-persistent fight or flight type agitated feelings, particularly upon waking + any triggers above
-low pulse of 50ish despite no exercise in years.
-low temperature of 95 - 96 when waking.
Secondly, out of range lab results lab results:
-TSH: 3.1 (range 0.4 - 4.0, but I'm aware 2+ is suboptimal)
-Cortisol @ 8am: very high / out of range (awaiting precise results)
-Albumin/Globulin ratio: 2.7 (ref range <2.0)
-Gamma-Gutamyltransferase: 8IU/L (ref range 10-71)
-Bilirubin: 23 umol/L (ref range <21)
-Triglycerides: 2.7 mmol/L (ref range <2.3)
Third, paradoxical reactions:
-Mirtazapine (an SNRI with similar properties to cyproheptadine) that has cortisol lowering properties. 3.5 to 7.5mg for 3 weeks caused a 40% worsening of sleep duration and quality as shown by a sleep tracker. Many studies with mirtazapine show that usually, sleep duration + time in stage 3/4 sleep is increased. Resting pulse rate did seem to increase ~10% but this may have been something to do with greater sleep deprivation
-Cyproheptadine @ 0.2mg caused a rapid and significant lowering of pulse rate from 55-60 to 40 within an hour. Temperature also fell to 95. This failed to raise significantly despite large amounts of food and walking around, which was quite alarming. On the plus side, it was very physiologically relaxing. But I felt like metabolism had slowed down to dangerous levels and it felt risky to fall asleep.
-Glycine and taurine. Both seem to have paradoxically stimulating effects, unless taken at <1g level. But in the case of such low doses, I'm not entirely sure if they're helping or not.
Overall, I'm confused, because despite high cortisol on lab tests, cortisol lowering pharmaceuticals seemed to have had negative effects in terms of RP criteria (ie even slower pulse, lower temperature, worsened sleep quality). I'm suspecting this might have something to do with poor thyroid function, but I'm very confused about what to try next that might be safe and appropriate, given some of the paradoxical reactions so far.
Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated, kind regards
Johnson F Bagfoot
Since reading this forum and some of the work of RP, I've got some lab tests and tried several pharmaceuticals. The results have confused me even more, so I'm hoping someone might shed light on how to progress. Hopefully this time I can provide information that's more useful within the peat framework.
Diet is generally: milk, oranges, rare steak, small amounts of gelatin (stimulating), some oats, hot chocolate, roast potatoes, leafy dark greens. PUFAs eliminated.
Firstly, symptoms:
-chronic fatigue to the point of being bed or room confined often
-pronounced exercise, heat and sleep deprivation intolerance
-persistent fight or flight type agitated feelings, particularly upon waking + any triggers above
-low pulse of 50ish despite no exercise in years.
-low temperature of 95 - 96 when waking.
Secondly, out of range lab results lab results:
-TSH: 3.1 (range 0.4 - 4.0, but I'm aware 2+ is suboptimal)
-Cortisol @ 8am: very high / out of range (awaiting precise results)
-Albumin/Globulin ratio: 2.7 (ref range <2.0)
-Gamma-Gutamyltransferase: 8IU/L (ref range 10-71)
-Bilirubin: 23 umol/L (ref range <21)
-Triglycerides: 2.7 mmol/L (ref range <2.3)
Third, paradoxical reactions:
-Mirtazapine (an SNRI with similar properties to cyproheptadine) that has cortisol lowering properties. 3.5 to 7.5mg for 3 weeks caused a 40% worsening of sleep duration and quality as shown by a sleep tracker. Many studies with mirtazapine show that usually, sleep duration + time in stage 3/4 sleep is increased. Resting pulse rate did seem to increase ~10% but this may have been something to do with greater sleep deprivation
-Cyproheptadine @ 0.2mg caused a rapid and significant lowering of pulse rate from 55-60 to 40 within an hour. Temperature also fell to 95. This failed to raise significantly despite large amounts of food and walking around, which was quite alarming. On the plus side, it was very physiologically relaxing. But I felt like metabolism had slowed down to dangerous levels and it felt risky to fall asleep.
-Glycine and taurine. Both seem to have paradoxically stimulating effects, unless taken at <1g level. But in the case of such low doses, I'm not entirely sure if they're helping or not.
Overall, I'm confused, because despite high cortisol on lab tests, cortisol lowering pharmaceuticals seemed to have had negative effects in terms of RP criteria (ie even slower pulse, lower temperature, worsened sleep quality). I'm suspecting this might have something to do with poor thyroid function, but I'm very confused about what to try next that might be safe and appropriate, given some of the paradoxical reactions so far.
Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated, kind regards
Johnson F Bagfoot
