Hello and Help! :)

[matruslab]

I seem to make it back here every few months or so.

I would greatly appreciate some help. I have some information so I thought posting that without going into my own commentary could possibly be more helpful.

Im not trying to be with holding it is just I didn’t want to bore anyone with my take on my story or get off on the wrong tangent. I would be happy to share more if that is helpful. I think the reason I keep coming back here is because I am looking to get out of my paradigm of thinking so in a sense I am not sure I know what is helpful and what isnt and what I should ask even. I am so impressed with the use of research and critical thinking and experimentation and sharing with this group that I thought to start would be to just share what objective information I have.

Additional information is I take lots of supplements that I vary at times and open to stopping or adding when I can but I thought most pertinent would be the medicines I take:

Soma (carisoprodol) 600mg early evening and before bed (total of usually 1200mg each evening)
Androgel 1.62% 8 pumps a day before bed
Use a CPAP machine at night (started that recently)

I am 35 years old, 5'11" I probably weigh about 150-160 (I thought about looking to be sure but I can't this is an emotional/mental issue) I have lower blood pressure (110/70 typical), low heart rate (often below 50), usually I have a low body temp.

I attached a blood test from this year (September) and a hair test from this year also (June) if these are helpful. Hopefully they are.

Any thoughts would be incredibly appreciated. Please ask me any questions too if interested or helpful.

This is a great community you have here.

Matt

 

[tara]

Welcome Matruslab

I'm not good at interpreting most of the numbers here - but others here are, so hopefully you'll get thoughts from some of them.
A couple of thoughts:

TSH is higher than Peat would consider compatible with optimal thyroid function - he would favour <1. Possibly slightly hypothyroid? Low body temp and low heart rate are consistent with a hypothyroid state. Do you have other hypothyroid symptoms?

I think total cholesterol looks low, so that could have an effect of the levels of steroid hormones that can be made from them. Eating more sugar may help get this up. Or possibly eating a bit of cholesterol - eg eggs. May relate to the reason for you using androgel?

Carbon dioxide is not very low, but it might be better to be a bit higher. This could relate to your reasons for using CPAP. What symptoms drove you to use the CPAP? Depending on the problem it is there to address, there may be other methods. For some people, sleep apnoea can be safely and effectively interrupted by just using the chinstrap, without the extra air pressure device. It helps counter night-time hyperventilation from mouth breathing, which can lower CO2 levels a bit much, and it can help keep the tongue sitting in the palate instead of falling back and blocking the nose-windpipe flow. If this is you, and you have a chinstrap, you could experiment with just using that - especially if you have someone with you when you first try it who will notice if there is a problem. If you have a ventilation-perfusion issue with your lungs themselves, I don't know that this would be appropriate or safe.

I don't know how to analyse hair tests. Are the numbers of each mineral expected to be roughly proportional to the general levels in the tissues? In blood? If so, low magnesium can contribute to tense muscles etc. Perhaps related to whatever reason you have using carisoprodol? I am not familiar with that drug, but a quick google shows it to be a centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxant. It looks as though it has been withdrawn from several markets because of significant unwanted side effects. I imagine it might be good to solve the problem so that you don't need to stay dependent on it. Possibly low magnesium is part of the problem? OJ, coffee, and broth from leafy greens are amongst the food sources. There are threads here about various supplemental forms.
Also looks like low copper. Oysters, liver and cocoa are food sources. There is some uncertainty about the safety of supplementing it in non-food form.There are threads on that too.
Do you know what high calcium in the hair means about it's levels in the body? We tend to aim for a generous intake of dietary calcium, in the expectation that this will help keep prolactin down and calcium going into bones where we want it, rather than into soft tissue where calcification is a problem.

Questions I have:
What is your health like - do you feel well? What symptoms do you have that anything is amiss?
What and how much are you eating?

 

[purbec]

Hi Matruslab,

I can't comment on your labs but i'm familair with hair testing...not an expert by any means but can see from your ARL test you are what would be called in the Nutritional Balancing 'world' to be a 'calcium shell'. Expelling lots of calcium, rather than it being put in the correct place in the body.

Potassium and sodium low on that usually are seen in people with adrenal problems.
Your ratio's are not ideal, according to the philosophy of hair testing.
Have you been taking any minerals to balance these ratio's as per the NB philosophy?

I tried nutritional balancing using the hair test method but it didn't work well for me. It gave me pointers to my levels and helped give me a better understanding of what was being excreted.
I found it difficult to get answer in that community as to what the values actually represent, and came to the conclusion, with research, they were more indicative of excretion levels than circulating serum levels.

I followed some groups who were dedicated to the NB protocol using the hair test method and due to the inconsistency with results from others, and in some cases no change in symptoms after 2 yrs of NB, i decided not to personally put all my effort into it.

However, like you, seeing the heavy metals present was useful to know.
I was a brown rice fanatic and believe that is where i ended up with an arsenic reading on my hair.
I too had high aluminium show up - not surprising since i was working with commercial paint products for many years, eating with a lot of aluminium cookware for years etc.

I think if the detox systems of the body are healthier then the stored toxins and metals can be detoxed. I think there is more to that journey than just mineral balance personally.
Getting the gut, liver and kidneys healthy is a good step to aiding better detox - i think Peat's dietary advice for feeding these systems to avoid continuous stress response and thus hormone depletion is a good step forward to take to then start to heal thyroid/adrenal/gonadal sluggishness.

Low body temp, BP, pulse, and weight coupled with slow oxidiser sounds like a system that is very stressed. I am in a similar position to you, but i'm female.

One thing that is mostly consistent with people who have such distressed systems, is that digestion issues were one of the earliest symptoms - and i often think that the saying 'the root to good health starts with the gut' is more true than we realise.

Do you have digestive issues? Are you following Peat's diet?
I'm really new to Peat's diet but do find that the gut endotoxin effect, creating Nitric Oxide which causes low BP, high Serotonin, inflammation, high histamine response etc...thus anxiety, sweating, adrenaline etc etc is one pathway that if focused on balancing can really help with all the 'upstream' symptoms and imbalances.

I know it's hard to know where to begin when the effects of compromised health start to compound one another, yet im a firm believer in healing the gut.