Hello from a NEW member in Australia

[MelHawk2014]

Hi there,
I am SO glad I found this forum.
I am new to the whole Ray Pea concept and have a million questions and thoughts I want to put out to the forum.

I am a weight-loss coach and spent many years following a low carb diet myself. It has become increasingly evident that low carb is dangerous and caused damage to my body and as such, I can simply no longer share this with my clients.

I found Ray Peat about 9 months ago, had a play with the diet and then went back to normal living. I stopped eating low carb a few years ago, but never really understood how my body could eat 500 calories of chocolate before dinner on a regular basis but never gain weight! Anyway, after seeing a naturopath earlier this year and being told that I was under fat (16% BF) and my tissues show high levels of adrenal stress, I decided it was time for a BIG change in my life. I stopped my early morning personal trainig client sessions, cu back on demanding exercise and started reading Peats work like a crazy woman.

Since cutting back on fluid, I began struggling with dry pebbly bowel movements for the first time in my life. The ONLY way I can reduce excess urination is with 4 tsp of salt per day!

I tried adding the carrot salad first thing before other food but it makes my pee clear....is this OK or should I have it with food to reduce blood sugar imbalance issues?

I have been eating ice cream and chocolate to increase body heat. I notice that I sometimes get REALLY hot at night, I think this is in response to sugar but not sure.

Anyway, in Australia I can only get progesterone cream with a script from a doctor so I have been using wild yam cream. Does this actually do anything at all?

What tests would be useful to get from my doctor or naturopath to assess my current health status so I have anidea where to begin?

I want to be the very best weight-loss coach and STOP crappy diets being given to people so that they can lose wiight without damaing their metabolism.

I am female, 42, 2 children in their teens.

Thanks in advance, any suggestions GREATLY appreciated :) Cheers Mel :)

 

[tara]

Welcome Mel,
There's a lot in here, but I'm just going to respond to a couple of things for now.
My understanding is that bio-identical progesterone is produced from wild yams, but that the body cannot make this chemical transformation itself. Wild yam would not have any actual progesterone in it, and your body cannot make use of it. It may do more (phytoestrogenic) harm than good.

It's common for many of us to be running out of fuel by the time we wake up, and for stress hormones to be high. In this case it often helps to get some food in fairly quickly, including carbohydrates. Afternoon between meals can be a good time for carrot salad. I sometimes have mine between dinner and supper. It's probably fine to have some OJ or someting close to the carrot salad to keep blood sugar up if you need it.

Quick search turned up this:
http://npan.com.au/

I think there have been people in Australia who have ordered progest-e from the states, but someone else might be able to confirm that.

 

[aguilaroja]

...
My understanding is that bio-identical progesterone is produced from wild yams, but that the body cannot make this chemical transformation itself. Wild yam would not have any actual progesterone in it, and your body cannot make use of it. It may do more (phytoestrogenic) harm than good...

Welcome to the forum.

I completely agree with Tara's reasoning and would suggest stopping the wild yam cream immediately.

As Tara notes, there any many topics raised in your report, and I also will only comment briefly. You might continue reading Dr. Peat's website articles and books and listening to recordings.

Please start monitoring resting pulse and temperature daily for a week or so, as a basic measure of metabolism. Find some extend list of low thyroid symptoms, as a basic gauge of metabolism. Most textbooks of medicine should have a decent list. These are two that came up google:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20021179

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic/

If you are needing very large amounts of salt to reduce frequent urination, low thyroid function is one possibility. Though much of the health care community has forgotten in for half a century, good thyroid function is necessary to retain salt well. There is a search function where you can see forum posts about recommended lab work, but TSH and basic thyroid function tests (total T4 and total T3, free T4 & free T3) are a start:

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2361#p28167

WADR, it is frequent that N.D.'s of different backgrounds posit adrenal fatigue. My understanding of Dr. Peat's view is that more primary metabolic supports usually resolve symptoms attributed to adrenal fatigue.

It may be politically incorrect on this forum, but I think it's generally best to drink fluid according to thirst, rather than to deliberately restrict fluid. Dr. Peat's concerns, as a I understand them, are more about the compulsive dogma of over-hydrating:

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/water.shtml

I think a small carrot salad is probably generally okay at any time, unless there is a specific digestive sensitivity. Carrot fiber will absorb salt-it is possible that the fiber is absorbing some of the extra salt you are taking and making the pee more clear. It is fairly common that people with low thyroid function boost themselves (often without recognizing it) by increasing salt intake.

 

[MelHawk2014]

Hello and thank you both VERY much for taking the time to respond to me.
I am very interested to hear your thoughts and will discontinue the wild yam as suggested by Tara. I was a little pre-menstrual this month and I have been using the wild yam so I wonder if that is connected?

Thank you RE hydration and pointing out that excess salt needs may also indicate low thyroid. I am off to the naturopath tomorrow to discuss tests and a REAL form of progesterone!

Thanking you again.
Mel :)

 

[ilovethesea]

You can order Progest-E to Australia through Electrical Body. The wild yam cream could be the cause of the night sweats.

Definitely start monitoring pulse/temps.

I don't think you should be restricting fluids esp if that's causing constipation. It's more that if you're drinking milk, OJ and eating tons of watery fruit you probably don't need to follow the BS advice about 8 glasses of water a day... do you drink milk now? Are you getting 80g protein? How many calories per day? For a female 2500 is a good target. You can also do 1 cup of white sugar per day - your liver needs it to build up glycogen stores for adequate thyroid conversion.

For tests TSH would be good to know.

Re: adrenals, Danny Roddy has a great article that would be good for you to read... basically Ray thinks it's a fake diagnosis - really the cause (and cure) is thyroid.

 

[bluewren]

Hi Mel,
I'm from Australia too, and over the years have ordered lots of products from iherb, Electrical Body, Farmacia del Nino and others. Have not yet struck any problems buying thyroid meds, selenium, vit e, progesterone, cascara,nutrisorb,
niacinamide etc, online.
All the best with your journey!

 

[MelHawk2014]

You can order Progest-E to Australia through Electrical Body. The wild yam cream could be the cause of the night sweats.
I don't think you should be restricting fluids esp if that's causing constipation. It's more that if you're drinking milk, OJ and eating tons of watery fruit you probably don't need to follow the BS advice about 8 glasses of water a day... do you drink milk now? Are you getting 80g protein? How many calories per day? For a female 2500 is a good target. You can also do 1 cup of white sugar per day - your liver needs it to build up glycogen stores for adequate thyroid conversion.

Thank you for this suggestion. I do drink milk and the OJ and I am definately getting 80g protein per day. I do struggle to get the calories up there without adding ice cream but I tend to feel horrid when I eat too much sugar. Headaches, bleding gums and general brain fog. Any thoughts on these symptoms?

Hi Mel,
I'm from Australia too, and over the years have ordered lots of products from iherb, Electrical Body, Farmacia del Nino and others. Have not yet struck any problems buying thyroid meds, selenium, vit e, progesterone, cascara,nutrisorb,
niacinamide etc, online.
All the best with your journey!

Thanks for the above suggestions as to where I can buy progesterone, I will get into that. It appears that I have high estrogen and testosterone even though I am thin but apparently this can be balanced with a little progesterone. I will keep you posted.

Cheers Mel :)

 

[timothylong]

Hi Mel,
www.longnaturalhealth.com sends Progest E to Australia nearly every day of the week. You may order it online.
Cheers, Timothy

 

[MelHawk2014]

Hi Mel,
http://www.longnaturalhealth.com sends Progest E to Australia nearly every day of the week. You may order it online.
Cheers, Timothy

Thank you timothylong :) Got some now and high dosing right now. Mel