Flushing ALL NIGHT LONG

[KarenEck]

Hello,

New here ... I found your forum searching for more info about Periactin/Cypro. I've read quite a few of the threads, and am considering switching from paleo/WAP to the Peat Diet. My doctor doesn't have any answers for years of flushing all night long, EVERY night and just prescribed the Cypro for skin rashes and irritations and trouble sleeping at night. I am so desperate for years of this red hot nightmare to end.

I'd rather not take any meds, but I've been messing with doses of clonidine for a year now to control flushing during the day - just 1-3 a day of 0.1mg. It gives me random narcolepsy-like naps and hours of fighting off sleeping during the day. Dry mouth. Ringing ears. But with a steady dose, maybe that will let up.

2 weeks ago I had loss of memory episode that inspired me to take my blood pressure ... YIKES 179/118. Started researching/increasing clonidine and monitoring pressure. One every six hours is mostly keeping blood pressure under 140/90 AND I have almost no daytime flushing now and the night flushing is not as severe, but it is still an every night torment. I was delighted to be able to take a nice long hot bath without instigating a major flush for the first time in years.

The pharmacist would not give me more clonidine, so had to see the doctor with money I do not have ... well, it brought me here, so maybe soon I can get some sleep without red hot blood-engorged ears and blotchy hot face and sometimes a prickly rash on chest and shoulders. It takes up to an hour to get rid of this in the morning.

I see some of you are taking cypro, but I'm not understanding why. The first night I took 4 mg I woke up without red ears, but the face was still red, and all the next day was terribly sleepy. Then it didn't seem to work as well the 2nd night and this morning I woke up with ... red hot ears. Well, I always wake up every 1-3 hours with the burning torment, and only sleep 5-6 hours most night to cut the number of horror events by one.

My temperature is consistently around 95.5 which my Dr. said is actually in normal range. My feet freeze. My hands are usually burning sometimes freezing, rarely neither.

Before the doctor visit and finding this forum I found a web page with info from Dr. Bill Wenzel and ordered glycine powder, Ubiquinol, Great Lakes Beef Hide Gelatin. And also Black Seed Oil which is supposed to cure everything but death. I was disappointed to read that the dried Mango I got and think is yum-yum is in the poison ivy family and allergenic and nuts that are so easy to make a meal with are high in PUFA. From a previous purchase I have Suntheanine and Lithium Aspartate.

I've seen hints here and there that the Ray Peat information holds the key to why this flushing during sleep is happening to me and how to stop it, but nothing very in depth. Any articles, books, videos, terms to google, advice on how much glycine, etc to try?

Thanks much,
Karen

 

[DankMemes]

I had the exact same thing on paleo, I'd have a constant light redness to my face but emotional triggers like anxiety, anger or other things like certain lights would cause a full blown flush where my face was radiating heat.

During my paleo days I fell for the low carb dogma and was eating pretty much meat and veg every meal. At first I thought it was to do with gut bacteria and sibo so I started supplementing probiotics and resistant starch which only made it worse.

How is your digestion? Do you have any bloating problems or does diet affect your skin in any way? If your hands/feet are cold and you have low temps then paleo simply isn't working for you.

I'm not sure which change it was exactly, but since swapping from paleo to peat my skin is clear and the only time it gets red is if I'm pushing it a bit too hard in the gym.

 

[tara]

Karen

Not sure exactly which version of paleo/WAP diet you have been doing - want to tell what/how much you have you been eating?
And not sure which version of ''the Peat diet' you are considering (there are many variants here).

I have never had the prolonged flushing you've been living with, but I did use to get some night sweats and have often had cold hands+ freezing feet + hot head (wish I'd practiced enough yoga to warm my feet on my head and cool my head with my feet :))
Here's what I think helped me - may not be the same for you, just some ideas: viewtopic.php?p=108552#p108552

post 109869 My temperature is consistently around 95.5 which my Dr. said is actually in normal range. My feet freeze. My hands are usually burning sometimes freezing, rarely neither.

Drs sometimes think half dead is normal.
That looks like a low temp to me, probably indicating lowish metabolism.
I'd suggest seeing what improvement you can get with diet and nutrition first, and then see if more tactics are needed - eg some progesterone and/or some cautious thyroid supplement. I wouldn't add either of those to a low carb diet, though, if that is what you are doing.

 

[youngandold]

I had the same night flashes even though Im a male.

You are likely hypothyroid (thus low temps) but the body compensates low thyroid with high adrenaline thus the flashes.

Get your thyroid checked and optimized to the upper third of the normal range.

When waking up at night eat something and go back to sleep.
Nightime food or a sugary drink will lower adrenaline thus reducing flashes and helping you to sleep.

 

[messtafarian]

Cyproheptadine works in different ways and people take it for different reasons, but the most common ones are inflammation connected to the gut or cortisol control. Cypro is a serotonin antagonist and therefore also an antihistamine, and this calms gut inflammation and cortisol.

However when you start talking about dry flushes and red hot ears, that makes me think it is more on the histamine-y side of things and not the cortisol/adrenaline side. The type of flushing you describe actually reminds me of a symptom described by people with carcinoid tumors who don't have "wet" flushes -- they just go hot and red due to serotonin secretion of these benign tumors, usually in the gut. If this is anywhere in the wheelhouse of your problem, then 4 mg is not enough. Most people with carcinoid are on about 24 mgs a day.

Even if you don't have that type of problem, cypro takes at least a week or two for full control. When I first started taking it I noticed some improvement at 10 mgs and LOTS of drowsiness and I kept at it until there was no drowsiness and NO flushing. I probably had full improvement in a month. I don't have carcinoid, though i have an adrenal tumor that the doctors can't decide is secreting anything or not. It's actually possible that it was, but its not *anymore* because of cypro.

 

[KarenEck]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I started getting headaches (not a normal thing for me, but usually a sign of too much EMF exposure) before I started upping the Clonidine. I think it's from the WiFi in the rental next door - they claim they cannot ever turn it off because of their trucking business. WiFi should at least be turned off at night. Now I'm having more headaches and stiff neck and don't know if it's from more clonidine or if I have to find some way to spend time somewhere else. But my car is really EMF hot, so I'm trapped in this house.

All that to say, I'll try to give some specific answers to you all, maybe early tomorrow when I don't feel like someone dropped a brick on my head.

I'm wondering if Cypro lowers blood pressure and I could wean off the Clonidine while increasing the Cypro. Dr. said to up it to 8mg at night after 1 week and no improvement. Cypro makes me so sleepy, I don't care so much if I'm hot, so I'm sleeping longer, and had the big prickly rash all over my chest this am, but I'm able to cool down faster when I get up. I tried to cut a pill into quarters to add 1 mg more each night. LOL - I got pieces of all sizes and some powder.

I don't care so much about the diet right now - that will take time - just give me the pill or supplement to stop this crazy-making night flushing. When my heart was doing some weird stuff and I thought GOOD - I'm ready to sign outta here - I knew it was time to start looking harder for a solution. I will try the sugar thing when I wake up.

Thanks everyone,
Karen (Sent from my hard-wired computer)

 

[tara]

Can you string up a faraday cage around your bed?
Or set up some personal earthing?

 

[tara]

post 110048 I don't care so much about the diet right now - that will take time - just give me the pill or supplement to stop this crazy-making night flushing.

Just saw your question on haidut's new tyromax thread, but thought I'd respond here with the rest of your story, rather than in the thread that's specifically about that supplement.

It may be that some cautious supplementation with Tyromax would be helpful for you, but I would not recommend trying it until you have made some effort to make sure you are getting basic nutritional needs met first. Some people solve some of their problems quickly or slowly by improving nutrition. May depend on the causes of the trouble. But even if you can't fix things with diet, you need to have good nutrition in place to support thyroid supplemtation. Increasing metabolism usually involves increasing the need for many nutrients. So if you are deficient in sth (includin calories), adding thyroid supps can sometimes deepen the deficiency, and cause more stress and trouble.

One cause of night sweats/flushing can be a rise in stress hormones triggered by running low on blood glucose. This can happen either from not eating enough or enough carbs through the day, or because the liver struggles to store enough glycogen to get you through the night. If it's the fomer, eating more sweet/carby food through the day may help. If there is a deficiency in some of the micronutrients needed to use the glucose well, then that could be an issue too.

I think excess estrogen and/or low thyroid hormones can sometimes be involved in night sweats.

Some of us use cronometer or similar, either regularly or as an occasional check, to get an approximate idea of what nutrition is in the food we are eating.

If you decide to try the tyromax or other thyroid supp, I'd recommend reading up on it a bit to get more of an idea of how it works an d how others are approaching it, and including reading Peat's articles on it. I'd also recommed starting with less than a full grain (8 drops tyromax, I think).
If it were me, I'd start with 1/4 grain (eg one drop tyromax twice a day), and monitor temps and pulse, and increment by another 1/4 grain after 3-4 weeks if waking temps are heading in the right direction but not yet up to the normal range (97.8-98.2 F). This is a slow cautious approach, but I think it should avoid some of the pitfalls of taking more than you need.

I'd also recommend reading up on progesterone as a possible tactic.

 

[Giraffe]

RP: There have been studies demonstrating the flushing, especially around menopause, this periodic flushing involves the release of nitric oxide in the blood vessels causing vasodilation, causing heat loss, the brain has a temp regulator which activates nitric oxide to create this heat loss, because something is creating this thermostat in the brain to a lower temperature. The brain is telling the body to cool off even though it is already sub-optimal temperature. The stress apparatus, normally the pituitary and adrenals, but above the pituatary, there is the corticotrophin release hormone (CRH)in the hypothalamus, which turns on the whole stress system, this CRH, directly activates the nitric oxide in the blood vessels causing flushing. The things that turn on the stress reaction and primarily related to hypoglygaemia. If the brain senses that it’s not getting enough sugar, then it wants to hibernate, reduce the body temperature, so it doesn’t waste the sugar that it’s short of. If you can tell your brain that it’s not short of sugar, that will suppress the CTH and that will stop turning on the nitric oxide and turning on the flushing.

Health and Diet - One Radio Network, 2014-01-01